"You must ask for God's help. ... After each failure, ask forgiveness, pick yourself up, and try again". C S Lewis.
It always interests me to see what verses about ourselves we chose to omit from our own "versions" of the scriptures.
There's these, for example:
"I am of the flesh, enslaved by sin. I do what is evil because sin dwells within me (nothing good dwells in my flesh). I have a desire to do good, but I do not do this, but I do evil instead. I find that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand (for) I see in my members a power waging war against what is good and making me captive to sin that resides in me, so in my mind I know and desire to serve what is good, but in my flesh I serve the law of sin... Wretched man that I am!". Paul (Romans 7).
It's pretty clear what Paul is stating here - sin works in us, so that we sin. This is why we believe that union with Christ makes us simultaneously justified yet still sinful - we know there will be times of failure, but we know that grace has already dealt with these in the righteous life and death of Christ, hence -
"If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us, but if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:8-10).
So, why do Christians teach things like this (which came up on a facebook link this week):
"It's a spiritual impossibility to love God but have difficulty obeying Him in certain areas".
The piece referred to is clearly speaking about you and I loving God in a way that is total. It reminded me of a conversation between John and Charles Wesley. John was well known for teaching that christians should be perfect in their conduct so they could express Gods holiness to the world. One day, Charles came to him in exasperation and said "John, I just cannot do it - I cannot keep all these rules and requirements to be holy". John is said to have replied that that was fine "Just love God instead".
Duty. Requirements. Obligations. Law.
It leaves us in the spin Paul found himself in when writing Romans 7, because honesty tells us that in ourselves, we're on a road to no where.
It leaves us, like David, at a time of obligation (2 Samuel 11:1), lounging and longing for something to allow the person to run free - often with dire consequences.
We find it hard to get close to that manner of honesty because it requires us to look deeper than our more immediate transgressions to the fact that there is part of us that not only desires gratification of our natural appetites (bent and twisted though they are by sin), but our core needs for meaning and purpose, so easily beset by pride and idolatry. It reminds us (as a new piece on Mockingbird put it this week) that "behind (inside) every faithful believer is an equally faithful atheist, seeking to tell us that it is all nonsense".
Christianity has to do its exposition of this well, because when we seek to, in some fashion, introduce a program which says you can be achieving what is expected of you (in respect to all the requirements of inward holiness and external righteous behaviour), we are getting terribly close to peddling a 'Dr good' snake oil remedy that was too well known in the first century of the faith (see Galatians 1:6-9).
In me, that is in my natural self, noted Paul, there does not dwell anything good, so if you, in effect, train what is evil to act and pretend to be good, that's not holiness - it's diabolical.
So, let's put ourselves where scripture does, and seek to lay out our theology from there, like this:
"Original sin... is the fault and corruption of the nature of every man, (hence we) are very far removed from original righteousness and are of our own nature inclined to evil, so our flesh craves continually in opposition to what is good... and this infection of nature remains in those born anew and is not subject to God's requirements, hence the Apostle (Paul) declares that such propensities to desire what is evil - to sin - are evident amongst those who believe and are baptized, but are not condemned (because of Christ)" (39 articles - 1561).
The only means provided by God that cleanses us from sin and unrighteousness is the blood of Jesus Christ ( 1 John 1:7) - our entire fellowship together is because of that reality. It underpins the fact that we are sinners saved entirely by grace (Romans 3:21-26, 4:5). If we open the door, even an inch, that conveys that something instead of or, more likely, as well as that unmerited love is required, we have omitted from and added to the word of life, and we are back to the bondage of our own worth and merits, seeking to purchase good standing with God by our own standards.
"When grace is known", notes Paul Zahl, "not confounded in any degree by law, it paints a masterpiece: a person unconditionally affirmed who instantaneously becomes the expresser of love and joy and peace and creativity" (Grace in theology). When grace is subverted by law, we instead create a Dorian Grey - a man who may dress in charm and endearment, but whose vice is slowly murdering him, without remedy.
We cannot, we must not, ascribe to a theology that leaves us with the latter and not the former, for that would leave us with a company who do not love God, but hate Him.
Christianity reflects the light, but the light is from one far more lovely than ourselves. He alone will make all things new.
Saturday, 16 February 2019
Saturday, 9 February 2019
Liberating ourselves to death
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. C S Lewis.
What happens when you reach a point where what has been deemed 'right' by power can only continue at great cost to others?
There's a great British classic film you can watch on You tube, called the Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961). It imagines a scenario where the world is literally shifted by the folly of the super-powers, seen through the eyes of the staff of a London newspaper.
Towards the end of the film, as doomsday approaches, the general populace of London go on a rampage, similar to that witnessed in New York the night of the great power failure in 1977.
Fiction is reflected in reality.
Towards the end of the second world war, the troops of the Soviet Union (a country which had killed around 20 million of its own people in this conflict) liberated many of the Nazi concentration camps in Poland. A few weeks later, as these same troops captured large parts of Germany, they proceeded to rape some 150,000 defenseless German women. Thousands of the women committed suicide.
Why the history lesson?
Because history so often repeats itself.
This month in parts of America, under the guise of rights and democracy, attempts have begun to legislate to allow the termination of full term pregnancies - babies, no less, on the slightest of pretexts in respect to a women's health. The declaration of such aims was met with revelry in New York, and the possibility of terminating a child's life after the birth is also being examined.
We have lived with the horror of sanctioned abortions in the West for several decades, but we are about to open a doorway that will leave us on par with the deeds of the purges of communist Russia or China or the death camps of Nazi Germany.
How can the 'democratic' world even be considering such an awful thing? How far have we departed from the sanctity and value of human life at a time when marriage and raising families has also become seriously threatened.
No doubt some will reply I'm on some religious soap box here - that I take this view because I'm seeking to push what my faith states, but when you consider the issue honestly, there's much more to say than just that - take a look at this argument.
What deeply troubles me is where this road is taking us - where will our culture be in a couple of decades if we legislate such acceptance of the right to terminate a child?
Is this healthy... for anyone?
What happens when you reach a point where what has been deemed 'right' by power can only continue at great cost to others?
There's a great British classic film you can watch on You tube, called the Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961). It imagines a scenario where the world is literally shifted by the folly of the super-powers, seen through the eyes of the staff of a London newspaper.
Towards the end of the film, as doomsday approaches, the general populace of London go on a rampage, similar to that witnessed in New York the night of the great power failure in 1977.
Fiction is reflected in reality.
Towards the end of the second world war, the troops of the Soviet Union (a country which had killed around 20 million of its own people in this conflict) liberated many of the Nazi concentration camps in Poland. A few weeks later, as these same troops captured large parts of Germany, they proceeded to rape some 150,000 defenseless German women. Thousands of the women committed suicide.
Why the history lesson?
Because history so often repeats itself.
This month in parts of America, under the guise of rights and democracy, attempts have begun to legislate to allow the termination of full term pregnancies - babies, no less, on the slightest of pretexts in respect to a women's health. The declaration of such aims was met with revelry in New York, and the possibility of terminating a child's life after the birth is also being examined.
We have lived with the horror of sanctioned abortions in the West for several decades, but we are about to open a doorway that will leave us on par with the deeds of the purges of communist Russia or China or the death camps of Nazi Germany.
How can the 'democratic' world even be considering such an awful thing? How far have we departed from the sanctity and value of human life at a time when marriage and raising families has also become seriously threatened.
No doubt some will reply I'm on some religious soap box here - that I take this view because I'm seeking to push what my faith states, but when you consider the issue honestly, there's much more to say than just that - take a look at this argument.
What deeply troubles me is where this road is taking us - where will our culture be in a couple of decades if we legislate such acceptance of the right to terminate a child?
Is this healthy... for anyone?
Saturday, 2 February 2019
Two Worlds
"Change is inevitable--except from a vending machine".-Robert C. Gallagher
There I was, doing my scheduled trip to work, but across a terrain entirely different to normal. A sudden substantial drop in the temperature the evening before had swiftly adjusted the routine rain into snow, and although it hadn't lasted very long, it had left a frozen system of roads and pavements.
Doing things that had been commonplace the day before suddenly became dangerous, and the busy rush to work had become a very slow, thin trickle of people and vehicles.
What a difference just one change can make.
In a few hours, the world had been shifted.
Then, I reached the city, and it was as though I'd been mistaken - the roads here were free of any frost and ice, and it looked just like it did the day before.
Two very different worlds very close to each other, each requiring a different way of thinking, of behaving, to use them without harm.
We encounter such changes without thinking, at least until the impact on us is direct and immediate, but such sharp turns should make us think.
When a moment happens suddenly like yesterday, you have to adapt quickly to continue doing what's required, but there are far more subtle changes happening around us every moment of every day that, when they reach a tipping point, can result in an entire world becoming opened or closed to us, at both the smallest and largest of levels.
A relationship is suddenly begun or lost because two people see each other differently, businesses rise and fall through particular choices or what we deem to be free choices become defined by subtle analysis of our prior decisions, so we begin to be 'directed' by specific forms of media or other controls. Change generally means something quite radical happening to us and our world, but how can we be sure it's for our good?
When we think about just one strand of life - say, the differences between the sexes - we quickly begin to notice that these may often be subtle, but they are inherently there. When changes that seek to deny these realties are imposed (think Russia in the 1920s), they fail, even if there's huge ideological momentum behind them, because they deny something far more important about us.
Change cannot usually erase or adjust for the better what we are at our core. For that kind of change, you need something impacting upon us that is far greater than dogma or stronger than gravity. You need grace.
Grace has the kind of strength delivered by a hurricane, but the gentleness of a nursing mother. Grace has the depth and height of the most breathtaking natural wonder you've encountered (or all of them combined), but the tenderness to speak tenderly to the most troubled conscience.
Our world is often a place that snubs grace.
Grace is something given to us beyond our comprehension, beyond our estimated worth or abilities. It makes it OK for me to live, as I am, gaining light about what I am and ought to be.
God wants us to know that change above and beyond anything else - that's why He became one of us - to say that right here, right now, life can be so much more than we ever imagined.
Grace is always there, even when we think we've moved way beyond its orbit - it's amazing how it can bring recovery.
Every day of your life may bring changes, large and small, but there's one key thing each of us need all the time.
Time to take a look at the world of Grace.
There I was, doing my scheduled trip to work, but across a terrain entirely different to normal. A sudden substantial drop in the temperature the evening before had swiftly adjusted the routine rain into snow, and although it hadn't lasted very long, it had left a frozen system of roads and pavements.
Doing things that had been commonplace the day before suddenly became dangerous, and the busy rush to work had become a very slow, thin trickle of people and vehicles.
What a difference just one change can make.
In a few hours, the world had been shifted.
Then, I reached the city, and it was as though I'd been mistaken - the roads here were free of any frost and ice, and it looked just like it did the day before.
Two very different worlds very close to each other, each requiring a different way of thinking, of behaving, to use them without harm.
We encounter such changes without thinking, at least until the impact on us is direct and immediate, but such sharp turns should make us think.
When a moment happens suddenly like yesterday, you have to adapt quickly to continue doing what's required, but there are far more subtle changes happening around us every moment of every day that, when they reach a tipping point, can result in an entire world becoming opened or closed to us, at both the smallest and largest of levels.
A relationship is suddenly begun or lost because two people see each other differently, businesses rise and fall through particular choices or what we deem to be free choices become defined by subtle analysis of our prior decisions, so we begin to be 'directed' by specific forms of media or other controls. Change generally means something quite radical happening to us and our world, but how can we be sure it's for our good?
When we think about just one strand of life - say, the differences between the sexes - we quickly begin to notice that these may often be subtle, but they are inherently there. When changes that seek to deny these realties are imposed (think Russia in the 1920s), they fail, even if there's huge ideological momentum behind them, because they deny something far more important about us.
Change cannot usually erase or adjust for the better what we are at our core. For that kind of change, you need something impacting upon us that is far greater than dogma or stronger than gravity. You need grace.
Grace has the kind of strength delivered by a hurricane, but the gentleness of a nursing mother. Grace has the depth and height of the most breathtaking natural wonder you've encountered (or all of them combined), but the tenderness to speak tenderly to the most troubled conscience.
Our world is often a place that snubs grace.
Grace is something given to us beyond our comprehension, beyond our estimated worth or abilities. It makes it OK for me to live, as I am, gaining light about what I am and ought to be.
God wants us to know that change above and beyond anything else - that's why He became one of us - to say that right here, right now, life can be so much more than we ever imagined.
Grace is always there, even when we think we've moved way beyond its orbit - it's amazing how it can bring recovery.
Every day of your life may bring changes, large and small, but there's one key thing each of us need all the time.
Time to take a look at the world of Grace.
Wednesday, 23 January 2019
Unwound
"Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right".
"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent".
Issac Asimov - Foundation.
A few months ago, a friend of mine got in touch to say that someone in his church was looking at starting a blog on the amazing world of science fiction and needed some help getting started by someone providing something that would inspire further writing. Knowing of my passion for the subject, I was asked if I could provide such a piece, so I quickly set to work.
It didn't take me long to delve back into over 50 years of pretty well continual engagement with the genre and to start mapping out the scope and range of a realm of stories that has seen much of its popular flowering in my own lifetime. Even as I did so, I began to get ideas for other pieces that could also be written, so it really wasn't any great surprise to me that in the end, I had to submit two articles on the key themes and not just one.
Something, however, has bothered me in the weeks following my burst of somewhat nostalgic creativity, and it became more acute in the last week, particularly as I began to ponder a particular question.
What if I had not been born in the 60s, but was born, say sometime in the last twenty years, and I was encountering this realm, not principally through the 'eyes' of the golden age of such fiction, but particularly in what's currently being generated, especially as 'popular' sci-fi, now. What would my impressions and affiliation to the field be?
Well, I'd probably still be wowed by some of the visual scope of what's being done. It would appear we're now capable of putting pretty much anything on screen, from vast spacial vistas, to really strange life, to conflicts involving thousands, so story-telling has clearly come a very long way, but what of the stories themselves? What of the themes, the characters, the deep drama, the excellence of resolutions to sweeping tales and the intellectual pay-off of getting us to think deeply about ourselves?
If the recent ventures of popular long-standing shows in this field are anything to go by, then all of this has suffered terribly of late. The money to make visual 'zing' may be there, but the stories themselves, given the reaction of the died in the wool fans, leaves a great deal to be desired, and this is really troubling.
Science Fiction was never afraid to play with all kinds of ideas about us, culture, progress and these often really got you having to pause and give them time, but this was never done in a 'convert or die' fashion. If something was good enough, deep enough, smart enough, it would keep you thinking, but the days of such craft, such wisdom appear to be reaching a troubling end. Most shows now apply a world-view sledgehammer all the time , making it clear that deviation from the line expressed is a heinous deviancy of the most ugly kind, so woe betide you if you outwardly question what's going on.
It's somewhat akin to what happens in the third season of one of the recent sci-fi shows that isn't following this blandness - the Expanse.
A vast ring in space has been constructed in our solar system by an alien civilization that we know very little about. Humans from Earth, Mars and the Asteroid belt sends ships to investigate and soon discover they can penetrate the field the ring creates to explore what's inside, but this field is as deadly as it mysterious, and all manner of troubles begin to befall the intrepid crews as they seek to learn more and discover what is really happening.
Much of current media, science fiction included, is like that ring - when you recognize the sphere of cultural influence and the 'exotic' notions behind much in media at present, you realize that there are very serious hazards and pitfalls in play in where Western culture is currently heading - a kind of 'right-mind' think that is seeking to eat whole the way in which we speak, act and identify who and what we are. Business, institutions and media are swallowing this apparent 'rightness' wholesale, and it's got to be questioned.
Today, I was reminded again of how brilliant Science Fiction can be when it gets us to question what we're being told we must accept.
Christianity isn't about not asking those questions of what's going on. It's about asking them well and giving substantial answers, so if you find yourself adrift in the current miasma of what's going on at present around us, check out some 'old' stuff - both in Science Fiction and Christianity. I suspect you'll be pleasantly surprised, perhaps even a little shocked, at the treasures that you'll find there.
"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent".
Issac Asimov - Foundation.
A few months ago, a friend of mine got in touch to say that someone in his church was looking at starting a blog on the amazing world of science fiction and needed some help getting started by someone providing something that would inspire further writing. Knowing of my passion for the subject, I was asked if I could provide such a piece, so I quickly set to work.
It didn't take me long to delve back into over 50 years of pretty well continual engagement with the genre and to start mapping out the scope and range of a realm of stories that has seen much of its popular flowering in my own lifetime. Even as I did so, I began to get ideas for other pieces that could also be written, so it really wasn't any great surprise to me that in the end, I had to submit two articles on the key themes and not just one.
Something, however, has bothered me in the weeks following my burst of somewhat nostalgic creativity, and it became more acute in the last week, particularly as I began to ponder a particular question.
What if I had not been born in the 60s, but was born, say sometime in the last twenty years, and I was encountering this realm, not principally through the 'eyes' of the golden age of such fiction, but particularly in what's currently being generated, especially as 'popular' sci-fi, now. What would my impressions and affiliation to the field be?
Well, I'd probably still be wowed by some of the visual scope of what's being done. It would appear we're now capable of putting pretty much anything on screen, from vast spacial vistas, to really strange life, to conflicts involving thousands, so story-telling has clearly come a very long way, but what of the stories themselves? What of the themes, the characters, the deep drama, the excellence of resolutions to sweeping tales and the intellectual pay-off of getting us to think deeply about ourselves?
If the recent ventures of popular long-standing shows in this field are anything to go by, then all of this has suffered terribly of late. The money to make visual 'zing' may be there, but the stories themselves, given the reaction of the died in the wool fans, leaves a great deal to be desired, and this is really troubling.
Science Fiction was never afraid to play with all kinds of ideas about us, culture, progress and these often really got you having to pause and give them time, but this was never done in a 'convert or die' fashion. If something was good enough, deep enough, smart enough, it would keep you thinking, but the days of such craft, such wisdom appear to be reaching a troubling end. Most shows now apply a world-view sledgehammer all the time , making it clear that deviation from the line expressed is a heinous deviancy of the most ugly kind, so woe betide you if you outwardly question what's going on.
It's somewhat akin to what happens in the third season of one of the recent sci-fi shows that isn't following this blandness - the Expanse.
A vast ring in space has been constructed in our solar system by an alien civilization that we know very little about. Humans from Earth, Mars and the Asteroid belt sends ships to investigate and soon discover they can penetrate the field the ring creates to explore what's inside, but this field is as deadly as it mysterious, and all manner of troubles begin to befall the intrepid crews as they seek to learn more and discover what is really happening.
Much of current media, science fiction included, is like that ring - when you recognize the sphere of cultural influence and the 'exotic' notions behind much in media at present, you realize that there are very serious hazards and pitfalls in play in where Western culture is currently heading - a kind of 'right-mind' think that is seeking to eat whole the way in which we speak, act and identify who and what we are. Business, institutions and media are swallowing this apparent 'rightness' wholesale, and it's got to be questioned.
Today, I was reminded again of how brilliant Science Fiction can be when it gets us to question what we're being told we must accept.
Christianity isn't about not asking those questions of what's going on. It's about asking them well and giving substantial answers, so if you find yourself adrift in the current miasma of what's going on at present around us, check out some 'old' stuff - both in Science Fiction and Christianity. I suspect you'll be pleasantly surprised, perhaps even a little shocked, at the treasures that you'll find there.
Sunday, 13 January 2019
Focus
"Seeing well is all about encountering things with your whole being. It means looking deeper, beyond the labels, and enjoying discovering what's really there".
Freeman Patterson.
"Looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith".
The Book of Hebrews.
One of the things I love about enjoying photography is how it allows you to see things in a fresh way.
I'll never forget my first real lesson on this.
My late wife and I used to travel along a particular road regularly in our early days in Cornwall which used to bend to allow you a view of a field of blood red earth. There was a tall old oak on the far end of the field, and during the autumn and winter, the light would travel over this spot in the most magnificent way.
We would often stop the car and sit, quietly, as she would say to me 'look at the light', and I would watch, transfixed, as the rays would stretch and arc across the rich contours of the ploughed landscape, forming all manner of shapes and forms with light and and shadow - a dance of nature.
I've never looked at things the same way since. Beauty is to be found in the most remarkable of places, and it strikes us, transforms us, when it 'speaks' to our core.
Reading Paul Zahl's 'Grace in Practice' this morning, I came across a statement that caused me to 'look at the light' as I arose.
"When grace is heard and received, when it is not confounded in any degree by the law (God's law - which leaves us condemned in ourselves), it paints a masterpiece: a person unconditionally affirmed who becomes instantaneously the expresser of love, joy, peace, meekness, kindness and creativity".
As a Photographer, I'm constantly seeking to use the 'tools' that feed into the lens of my camera to compose something that will convey the essence of a moment. These include light and form, shadow and texture, colour and mood, all passing through the means that will, hopefully, convey something of the richness of what was happening the moment the shutter opened and, bam, there it is - something wonderful.
The same is true of how God's grace feeds us. We look at the dross of our own pain and misery and strife, and we remain fixed in the futility of our failure, but grace clothes our filthiness, envelopes us in unmerited, astonishing affection, gives us an inheritance undeserved yet of sublime status, takes us in to banquet beneath the banner of everlasting affection, and rejoices wholly in our recovery.
Like sunlight breaking through on a iron-sky day, we're revived when we understand the "unbreakable acceptance of love of our Father" (Jim Mc Neely - The Romance of Grace) which alone causes affection to well up in us as naturally as light beautifies what it touches.
Jesus Christ is the full expression of the goodness of our heavenly Father because He alone comes and gives Himself fully and completely for us. How, writes Paul, can anything then sever us from such a love evidenced in Jesus?
There are always times when we feel so broken and disheartened because of our troubles or sins, but God wants to look at the light, to find rest in the good news of His care and mercy toward us. That is the image that's worth taking and worth sharing.
Freeman Patterson.
"Looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith".
The Book of Hebrews.
One of the things I love about enjoying photography is how it allows you to see things in a fresh way.
I'll never forget my first real lesson on this.
My late wife and I used to travel along a particular road regularly in our early days in Cornwall which used to bend to allow you a view of a field of blood red earth. There was a tall old oak on the far end of the field, and during the autumn and winter, the light would travel over this spot in the most magnificent way.
We would often stop the car and sit, quietly, as she would say to me 'look at the light', and I would watch, transfixed, as the rays would stretch and arc across the rich contours of the ploughed landscape, forming all manner of shapes and forms with light and and shadow - a dance of nature.
I've never looked at things the same way since. Beauty is to be found in the most remarkable of places, and it strikes us, transforms us, when it 'speaks' to our core.
Reading Paul Zahl's 'Grace in Practice' this morning, I came across a statement that caused me to 'look at the light' as I arose.
"When grace is heard and received, when it is not confounded in any degree by the law (God's law - which leaves us condemned in ourselves), it paints a masterpiece: a person unconditionally affirmed who becomes instantaneously the expresser of love, joy, peace, meekness, kindness and creativity".
As a Photographer, I'm constantly seeking to use the 'tools' that feed into the lens of my camera to compose something that will convey the essence of a moment. These include light and form, shadow and texture, colour and mood, all passing through the means that will, hopefully, convey something of the richness of what was happening the moment the shutter opened and, bam, there it is - something wonderful.
The same is true of how God's grace feeds us. We look at the dross of our own pain and misery and strife, and we remain fixed in the futility of our failure, but grace clothes our filthiness, envelopes us in unmerited, astonishing affection, gives us an inheritance undeserved yet of sublime status, takes us in to banquet beneath the banner of everlasting affection, and rejoices wholly in our recovery.
Like sunlight breaking through on a iron-sky day, we're revived when we understand the "unbreakable acceptance of love of our Father" (Jim Mc Neely - The Romance of Grace) which alone causes affection to well up in us as naturally as light beautifies what it touches.
Jesus Christ is the full expression of the goodness of our heavenly Father because He alone comes and gives Himself fully and completely for us. How, writes Paul, can anything then sever us from such a love evidenced in Jesus?
There are always times when we feel so broken and disheartened because of our troubles or sins, but God wants to look at the light, to find rest in the good news of His care and mercy toward us. That is the image that's worth taking and worth sharing.
Sunday, 6 January 2019
Missing the Mark
"In the bleak midwinter".
It's that strange time of year.
I've been back at work for a week and a half, but most of the world here has been in 'hibernation mode', barely appearing except for the necessities.
It's no doubt understandable in the midst of the darkness of the short days, but it can often work hard upon those who are alone.
I've spent many of my free hours in study and had an opportunity to deepen my sharing regarding the faith with someone close to me. They visited church over Christmas, like many do, and wanted to enquire into finding somewhere worthwhile attending to discover more.
Christmas is, no doubt, a very busy season for many churches. The church I attend holds about four times the services in December that it does the rest of the year as people in their hundreds come. The question, no doubt, should be, what do you do about that?
Having found a list of reasonably local churches to the home of my enquirer, I set about searching through their web pages to see what they were about and what was happening in the next few months. I eventually found a church that was very effectively setting out its stall regarding what was going on and where it was coming from, but for that single church that was warmly reaching out there were many others that had nothing to say to people, like me, who were searching for somewhere to connect after Christmas. Sure, there were plenty of 'in house' items mentioned, be they local fetes or "specialized" groups for youth, or worship, or students, but nothing for the average person that was wanting to find a way to turn up and learn more.
What a sorry state of affairs.
We've just had the season which, hopefully, unwraps something of the richest treasure given to our sullen world, and that should at least generate some measure of curiosity amongst those who have passed the threshold of our gatherings, so is it really the time to go silent?
Closing down for a few warm days together is fine, so long as even in the midst of that, we're already thinking about what is just ahead and making sure that we're ready to welcome others in to enjoy the radiance of the glory which Christmas brings.
It's that strange time of year.
I've been back at work for a week and a half, but most of the world here has been in 'hibernation mode', barely appearing except for the necessities.
It's no doubt understandable in the midst of the darkness of the short days, but it can often work hard upon those who are alone.
I've spent many of my free hours in study and had an opportunity to deepen my sharing regarding the faith with someone close to me. They visited church over Christmas, like many do, and wanted to enquire into finding somewhere worthwhile attending to discover more.
Christmas is, no doubt, a very busy season for many churches. The church I attend holds about four times the services in December that it does the rest of the year as people in their hundreds come. The question, no doubt, should be, what do you do about that?
Having found a list of reasonably local churches to the home of my enquirer, I set about searching through their web pages to see what they were about and what was happening in the next few months. I eventually found a church that was very effectively setting out its stall regarding what was going on and where it was coming from, but for that single church that was warmly reaching out there were many others that had nothing to say to people, like me, who were searching for somewhere to connect after Christmas. Sure, there were plenty of 'in house' items mentioned, be they local fetes or "specialized" groups for youth, or worship, or students, but nothing for the average person that was wanting to find a way to turn up and learn more.
What a sorry state of affairs.
We've just had the season which, hopefully, unwraps something of the richest treasure given to our sullen world, and that should at least generate some measure of curiosity amongst those who have passed the threshold of our gatherings, so is it really the time to go silent?
Closing down for a few warm days together is fine, so long as even in the midst of that, we're already thinking about what is just ahead and making sure that we're ready to welcome others in to enjoy the radiance of the glory which Christmas brings.
Monday, 31 December 2018
Jinxed!
"I am not a number - I'm a free man!"
The Prisoner.
So, what's more annoying than having to fix a serious fault?
Discovering that the detector that said you had the fault was the fault (especially if you discover this after spending money to repair a fault that wasn't really there to begin with).
Think it doesn't happen?
Actually, it is a very common occurrence, but whereas it used to be just about fixing a brake light or changing your oil, now it can be far, far more serious.
We're talking, in essence, about algorithms, lines of code that determine not just how your car runs or your phone works, but whether you get off a criminal listing, are viable for benefits, or to be considered a social risk.
The problem is that much of this determination is made in a fashion that is incredibly naive and facile, purely because the character of the programing is often quite superficial, but that doesn't change the fact that people's lives are being decimated by the consequences.
Bad programming quite literally leads to dreadful consequences. The problems arise, of course, because the best these machines have to go on is what's been placed in them... by us.
Is what's true when it comes to A I systems also true when it comes to the way we 'do' our own thinking about the nature of truth? How often are we shaped in our conclusions here by poor or miss-placed notions of what matters?
I was recently listening to Sam Harris debate Jordan Peterson about various evaluations he'd reached and how they diverged on this, principally because Sam had a very telling (and common) view about 'God' informing his objections. This was expressed in various ways, but one popular notion expressed was how vengeful and capricious 'God' was because He required the extermination of those living in the land of Canaan when the Israelites arrived and began their conquest. Entire peoples, Sam noted, were to wiped out purely because Joshua and company were instructed to do so - all finished off, foom, in a heartbeat, because of the command of this 'just' God.
Sounds pretty damning.
Then I thought about it. This was actually a case of a false fault signal.
If you take a look at the prior 400 years of the history of the region (and there are various snapshots in Genesis, Exodus and Joshua on this), you begin to see that this wasn't a snap judgement by some violently-natured ogre. There's a series of jolts in these stories that say 'hey, what are doing being so corrupt that you're murdering innocents - stop it, or there will be a reckoning'.
The remarkable thing about this story isn't that judgement comes. It's how patient and long-suffering God is about this (so, now wait for the atheist analysis that says this shows God is evil because He's too s l o w in dealing with these people!). How long would it be if just one of these tribes set up on our back lawn before we'd be calling the authorities to have them arrested... but God is merciful towards them for centuries, so the usual analysis is just plain wrong.
That's something worth considering in 2019... How good is our thinking about this? Are we seeing the real picture, or just the piece that appeals to our personal whims?
Wholeness often starts right there.
Happy New Year.
The Prisoner.
So, what's more annoying than having to fix a serious fault?
Discovering that the detector that said you had the fault was the fault (especially if you discover this after spending money to repair a fault that wasn't really there to begin with).
Think it doesn't happen?
Actually, it is a very common occurrence, but whereas it used to be just about fixing a brake light or changing your oil, now it can be far, far more serious.
We're talking, in essence, about algorithms, lines of code that determine not just how your car runs or your phone works, but whether you get off a criminal listing, are viable for benefits, or to be considered a social risk.
The problem is that much of this determination is made in a fashion that is incredibly naive and facile, purely because the character of the programing is often quite superficial, but that doesn't change the fact that people's lives are being decimated by the consequences.
Bad programming quite literally leads to dreadful consequences. The problems arise, of course, because the best these machines have to go on is what's been placed in them... by us.
Is what's true when it comes to A I systems also true when it comes to the way we 'do' our own thinking about the nature of truth? How often are we shaped in our conclusions here by poor or miss-placed notions of what matters?
I was recently listening to Sam Harris debate Jordan Peterson about various evaluations he'd reached and how they diverged on this, principally because Sam had a very telling (and common) view about 'God' informing his objections. This was expressed in various ways, but one popular notion expressed was how vengeful and capricious 'God' was because He required the extermination of those living in the land of Canaan when the Israelites arrived and began their conquest. Entire peoples, Sam noted, were to wiped out purely because Joshua and company were instructed to do so - all finished off, foom, in a heartbeat, because of the command of this 'just' God.
Sounds pretty damning.
Then I thought about it. This was actually a case of a false fault signal.
If you take a look at the prior 400 years of the history of the region (and there are various snapshots in Genesis, Exodus and Joshua on this), you begin to see that this wasn't a snap judgement by some violently-natured ogre. There's a series of jolts in these stories that say 'hey, what are doing being so corrupt that you're murdering innocents - stop it, or there will be a reckoning'.
The remarkable thing about this story isn't that judgement comes. It's how patient and long-suffering God is about this (so, now wait for the atheist analysis that says this shows God is evil because He's too s l o w in dealing with these people!). How long would it be if just one of these tribes set up on our back lawn before we'd be calling the authorities to have them arrested... but God is merciful towards them for centuries, so the usual analysis is just plain wrong.
That's something worth considering in 2019... How good is our thinking about this? Are we seeing the real picture, or just the piece that appeals to our personal whims?
Wholeness often starts right there.
Happy New Year.
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