Getting into a Rhythm

After my recent monastery trip I've been inspired once again to come up with some kind of spiritual time table. This is something that I have talked about before on a bigger scale and have tried on a smaller scale but never with much success. I was hoping Christine Sine's book Sacred rhythms would help but I found it a little too much "Why having rhythms in your life is a good thing" and not enough "here's how you do it".

My initial idea is to start with the following...

1. Morning Prayer: Around breakfast I'll pray for the following...
   Monday: Creation, Tuesday: The World, Wednesday: My Country / Community, Thursday: My Friends, Friday: My Family, Saturday: My Wife, Sunday: Me
2. Listen to the Bible in the car on the way to work (half hour each day)
3. Read Richard Rohr's reflection every weekday afternoon
4. Every Second Sunday go to church, Every other Sunday do a church at home thing.
   

On top of this I'll spend only a set amount of time blogging, emailing and computing, playing music, running, doing house & garden stuff and doing church stuff. At different times in the past I have over looked or over committed time to each of these areas, and as my work time table tends to change each week (making a timetable impossible to keep) I'm going to try this for a while. This deliberately doesn't include family time (as well as other things) as that is something that I don't want to put limits on. The things in the list are things that I have trouble spending too much or not enough time on, hence the need to get into some kind of discipline with.

It's only a start at this stage and I'm keen to build on it not only with daily stuff but hopefully with rhythms covering the whole year. At Advent (before Christmas) and Lent (before Easter) I'm thinking of only eating non processed foods.

Chilling Lines

If you see only one gory slasher film this summer see this one. A helpless wholesome American family are on the way to their favourite holiday spot when the trip goes horribly wrong. Their car breaks down and an axe wielding psycho offers to help. The following phrases by the movies axe wielding psycho still stick in my mind.

Chilling lines from the Highway scenes...

Need Directions?
Do you have any idea where you're going?
My way is the Highway.
Follow me.

Chilling lines from when the Psycho lured the family into his house...

C'mon over and bring the kids.
We need to talk.

Chilling lines from the locked in his basement scene...

Don't make me come down there.
You think it's hot here?
What part of "Thou Shalt not" did you not understand?

Chilling lines from when the Psycho reveals he has been stalking the family...

Loved the Wedding. Invite me to the Marriage.
Tell the kids I love them.
There will be a test.

Actually it's not a new slasher movies they're all "messages from God" on a billboard in Dallas. See it here. For me that makes it even more chilling.

Richard Rohr's reflection blows me away again. "To Be Biblical"

Richard Rohr's reflection blows me away again! Here is his reflection "To Be Biblical".

To be biblical is not simply to quote the Bible. We need to tell that to the fundamentalists. To be biblical is not to quote Moses; it's to do what Moses did. To be biblical is to do what Abraham did; it's not it's not to quote the Abraham story. It's to do what Jesus did; it's not to simply quote Jesus. Christians are to be in touch with the same God Jesus was in touch with, the same wisdom tradition Jesus drew insight from. We are to be building that same unity and creating the same life that Jesus was creating and building. That's what it means to be biblical. I don't see Moses quoting the Bible. I don't see Jesus quoting the Bible as much as pointing to reality. That's exactly why the people said, "He's not like the scribes and Pharisees" (Mark a:22). He "teaches with authority" (Mark 1:27). But he didn't do that by justifying everything he said with a Bible quote, which proves only a lack of authority, the inner authority of truth. The Bible is that two thousand-year graph of "listening history" that helps us guide ourselves into the future. It reveals and names the patterns that connect all things, the rhythms and seasons of faith. Jesus read reality, listened to God, gathered the tradition and then spoke truth. Now if we're truly Catholic, it seems to me that's what we've got to aim for: to be biblical by gathering the wisdom of the ages. I'm not trying to take away the authority of this book but to ground it. Its reference point is outside itself.

from The Price of Peoplehood

Originally posted on the Centre for Action and Contemplation website on the 24th of July 2006

It's a Bird, it's a Plane, it's a Supermarket!

If someone could travel in time from 2000 years ago or even 200 years ago to now what would they be most amazed to see? The mobile phone, the internet, the contraceptive pill, plane travel perhaps? I reckon it's got to be the supermarket. It's something which has revolutionised our lives and we never even think about it.

It's not hard to find visions in the Bible full of plentiful vines, never ending supplies of milk and honey. In the 13th century the poem Cockayne imagines a time when food is not only readily available but delivered conveniently packaged, with cooked geese and pigs flying and running straight to your door.

In my thinking The mobile phone is glorified talking, The internet is a glorified book, the contraceptive pill is medicine and a plane is another from of transport, all which have existed in some form or another for a long time. But the supermarket is an unimaginable fantasy come true. Food aplenty and not even subject to the seasons. Never again would there be a time of enforced fasting and gathering food is no longer the primary concern of the majority of the population.

So next time your in the humble supermarket imagine what life without it might be like and thank God that the concerns of so many of those in Bible times are something that we have the luxury of never even thinking about.

Responding to Resolution 108

As surely expected the Uniting Church in Australia has passed resolution 108 which really just confirms resolution 84 about the ordination of gay clergy. Now since I'm kind of going to a Uniting church I thought I'd chuck in my two cents. Firstly, I'm a bit perplexed by the Confessing Charter put out by EMU and the Reforming Alliance which I'm guessing will become the Assembly of Confessing Congregations (or perhaps they could form a fourth group? he he). Issues of sexuality aside I find it interesting that almost everything in the charter is something that, I think, most Mainline or Liberal (MoL) Xns would agree with. The charter amongst other things calls for the church to determine doctrine according to the teachings of scripture and to be orthodox for example. I'd say most MoL Xns think they are doing this certainly some evangelicals don't concur with their conclusions, but it doesn't mean they haven't used the same process.

This is interesting because I think one of the things that has changed from over the last few generations is the way that Xns are happy to play with and be flexible with theology. It seems that older Protestants (particularly anyone of a more evangelical persuasion) used to play around with Liturgy and worship and agree on theology. Now whilst we still play around with Liturgy we are playing more with theology. We are happy to let our theology be somewhat fluid acknowledging that we have different ideas and that can be ok. This is one of the reasons why people find it so hard to pin down the emerging church, and one of the reasons why when someone is touted as a theological spokesperson for the emerging church most of the emerging church will not feel like that person is a spokesperson for them.

So for mainline or emerging churches what are we to do? Whilst thinking about this I stumbled across an old post I read whilst lurking on another church's e-group, I've adapted and added to that below. To come up with a Postmodern Church Creed of sorts...

As a church we aim to follow Christ but we take no position on anything, but leave all positions up to the individual members of the church. Individuals are free to be liberal, fundamentalist, evolutionists, creationists, sexually liberal, or conservative. We continue to love one another, and to fellowship, despite the differences of opinion. For reasons of practicality we may have to come to a consensus on some issues like what time church starts. We may even have a consensus about other more esoteric issues. But, these are not authoritative positions they are just a consensus or perhaps, at worst, a majority voted position.

This is not an embracing of pluralism or relative truth it is simply acknowledging that God is our authority and that God does not give us a new set of instructions every time a new dilemma presents itslef. Instead we have a history of God interacting with the world (the Bible), we have the spirit and we have a our collective experiences of God. Putting all this together can give messy and not unanimous results. We need to embrace this. Disagreeing is fine breaking union with each other is something far more drastic all together.

Critical Child Rearing Mistake No. 1 - Revolver

I've begun to tire of the edited two minute classics and nursery rhyme one tone jingles that are built into my 12 week old daughter's toys. So, I decided it's time to act like an overbearing know it all father and play her some of what I consider good music. I thought I'd start with the something classic and since they had written a couple of kid friendly songs (Yellow Submarine and Octopus's Garden to name two) I thought I'd start with the Beatles. The next question was where to start with the Beatles catalogue. I didn't want to go for the more mature later stuff (accidentally stumbling across "Revolution 9" could be disastrous) and I didn't want to go for the sugary sweet earlier "she loves yeah yeah yeah" stuff so I went straight to the middle of their catalogue - Revolver. And, she loves it. The only problem is that I've now realised I've started with what many regard as the best album of all time. So wear do I go from here? Any Ideas?

Tripping the Light Monastic

Last weekend I got to spend a day at the New Norcia Monastery. One of my best friends invited me to join a weekend away with some men (aged 12-80) from his church. Personally, I think my friend should go down in the youth leader hall of fame purely for being able to get high school aged boys up at 5am to pray with monks! Incredible feats of improbability aside, I'll definitely be back to visit the monastery (for at least three days next time).

Whilst I was there I could feel myself slowly slip into the rhythm of the Benedictine Monks, who keep a strict time table praying 7 times a day (they go through all of the Psalms in a fortnight).

Their timetable looks like this...

5:00 Rise

5:15 Vigils (Prayer)

Breakfast

7:30 Mass (Prayer)

9:00 Work

12:00 Sext (Prayer)

Dinner

2:30 None (Prayer)

5:45 Lectio Divina (Prayer)

6:30 Vespers (Prayer)

Supper

8:15 Compline (Prayer)

The rhythm of the day reminded me of meditating with a mantra. The rhythm slowly fills the space where the usual distractions of my mind reside and my mind and soul start to clear. I could feel myself about to fall into their rhythm when I had to run a session for the camp, which not only jolted me outed of any spiritual relaxation but also reminded me that I hadn't done that kind of thing for a while (it was a bit rusty).

Other highlights included

• The Olive oil - hand made by the monks the old Spanish way.
• The reading of a book critical of Karl Ratzinger (the Pope) during dinner with the monks (which is other wise silent)
• A monk saying "You won't get bored but you will wonder is this all we do." when referring to his monastic life and "There's no room for creativity or imagination" with a smile when referring to their prayer times.
• The realisation that the rule of St Benedict Prayer, Work and Study mirrors my ideas of Connect (Prayer) Grow (Study) and Serve (Work) that I have mentioned before.

Rest and retreat is not something I do well, I can't wait to return to the monastery to give me that opportunity. I can't wait to go back and get more than just the brief taste I got.

Resume Advice

Anyone who knows my history of inability to find employment would find it surprising that I would be wanting to give advice to others about resume writing. After recently being on the receiving end of some resumes and accompanying cover letters I would like to dispense this advice to employment seekers.

1) Please refer to the job that you are applying for somewhere
2) Keep your resume under 20 pages
3) Don't include your poetry as part of the resume especially not 4 pages of poetry

Thank you

Consuming with William Cavanaugh

Two months ago (which gives you an idea about how long it takes me to write some of my posts) I got to see William Cavanaugh speak about consumerism specifically 'When is Enough: Living as Christians in a Time of Affluenza'. William spoke about our detachment from, production, producers and products.

Detachment from production: We no longer make things for ourselves and we have little if any idea of how things are made.

Detachment from producers: We don't know the people who make the products we consume.

Detachment from products: We no longer buy a product purely for it's utilitarian value. Instead we buy products for the emotional experience attached to it or it's brand.

These are just three simple points that have encouraged me to make more stuff or at least understand how stuff I buy works so that I can repair it rather than throw it away. It has reinvigorated my desire to know how my products are made whether that be in a sweat shop or factory farm and to seek out alternative. And, I am becoming more aware of how advertising tries to sell things (brown fizzy liquids are often sold as fun experiences rather than tasty liquids) and thinking how can I get that feeling doing something other than purchasing the product, which of course will not give me that feeling anyway.

Shirt Fetish

Last weekend my wife pointed out to me that I have a shirt fetish. I had bought 4 new shirts that weekend (two brand new from target for $4.86 each! I'm wearing one of them in the picture) this made a total of 28 shirts she felt that this was not quite in keeping with our Live Simply philosophy, and since she quite adequately argued that I hadn't worn many of them for years and there are other people who might like to wear them I agreed it was time for a cull - I'm glad three velvet jackets or two pairs of velvet pants does not constitute a fetish. The shirt cull was very painful because for most of my life I have lived without a camera instead I have kept my memories in shirts (velvet jackets and the occasional pair of terry toweling shorts).

I culled only a handful from of my collection (this is a before the cull picture) . The wedding shirt, first date shirt all had to stay, the shirt I wore the day I moved into the house where I met my wife had to go. My first groovy opshop shirt had to go (as much as I hate to admit it now, it's not actually that groovy). The first groovy opshop shirt my wife bought me had to stay. As hard as the culling of my cotton and occasionally polyester memory banks was I'll have to trust that my memories have gone to a better place, and that there will be more and better empty memory banks for me to find hanging on discount racks and at opshops.

Get Human

The Internet is full of weird and wonderful information. Much of it completely useless or completely erroneous. Recently, after getting sick of having to run the gauntlet of computer automated responses everytime I make a phone call, asking me to press 1 to 8 for various options and then 1 to 6 for various sub options, I decided to give http://www.gethuman.com.au/ a go. Get Human is a website that tells you cheats to getting around the computers and get you talking straight to a human. With much skeptical amazement I tried it and got straight though, no automated responses no annoying on hold music. Hooray for the net!

6 of 101 things to do as a churchless Xn - Manuscript Discovery

Reading the Bible can be a hard thing. Almost everything book of the Bible can seem daunting in its own way. Here's where Manuscript Discovery can help...

Name: Manuscript Discovery

Category: Grow

Size: Small

Description:The first thing to say about Manuscript Discovery is that it's hard work. But if you going to try and understand two to three thousand year old documents written in a completely different culture to our own what did you expect? The second thing to say is that I have found it the most rewarding way to read the Bible as a lay person. Here's a brief run down of the process. Over four to five weeks a small group of people read through an entire book of the Bible. The book is printed out onto A4 pages with no paragraph marks or verses (as these are later additions to the text) with double spacing (so you have room to scribble notes) and usually in an unfamiliar but accurate translation (I recommend the NRSV). This is what happens over the 4 weeks.

1. Read the whole book and makes notes, discuss initial impressions.
2. Read the whole book and look for themes and ideas, discuss.
3. Read the whole book and divided it up into sections, discuss and decide on themes and ideas in the book
4. In smaller teams pick a theme and read the whole book, discuss what you have found.
5. Keep discussing.

Read my Manuscript Discovery Article for more detail.

Big Brother and My Pimpin' Jacket

Last week two things happened. One two contestants got kicked off Big Brother and a high school kid complimented my blue velvet jacket by saying "That's a pimpin' jacket". Which for the uninitiated means "Hey, I like your jacket it looks like the kind of jacket a man who exploits women for money would wear".

My favorite Big Brother moment ever was watching last year's housemate Tim Brunero talking to a group of supposedly sexually experienced female housemates. With a totally deadpan face he made up ridiculous statistics about the habits of masturbating men, including (if I remember correctly) that 10% of men need to put bulldog clips on their nipples when they masturbate. The women not only believed everything he said but did not even question what he said for fear of appearing ignorant about sex, which is of course exactly how they appeared.

What happened last week on the Big Brother house was again due to a lack of knowledge about sex and the opposite sex. Similarly, that "Hey that's a pimpin jacket" is a compliment perhaps too is indication of the reality that young people know little about sex and the opposite sex (like hundreds of generations of young people before them)

Recently there has been both a rise of raunch culture and a glorification of the young especially when it comes to sex and being sexual. The rise of raunch culture means that anyone with a high speed internet connection or a little imagination while they're watching Saturday morning music videos means that it's easy to feel like you're getting a lot of information about sex. Alas what's happening is that people are only getting information about male fantasies portrayed as if it was what sex and women are actually like. Further more I get the feeling that most people under over 30 now assume that those under 30 would know more about sex than they do.

So should we call to ban Big Brother? I don't think so. Instead I'd like to call for more education for young people about what the opposite sex is like, what the opposite sex likes and what sex is like. An uninvited slapping of your genitals on someone's face is not funny and never appropriate and, telling me that my jacket makes me look like a pimp is not a compliment.

I hope I don't sound like I'm trying to take some high moral ground here. I don't feel outrage about these two events but more sadness. Sadness that I think these people are not going to experience the best that sex has to offer.

Celebrating Doubt Vs Two Ways to Live

Today over coffee I traded stories with someone of times where were both involved with AFES groups at different Universities and both of us remember the first time we were encouraged to go up to random strangers on campus and present to them the Two Ways To Live track.

I was able to reassure my coffee companion in reassuring him that he was not alone in thinking that there was no way that this was going to do anything more than thoroughly irritate the person approached. Fortunately for me there were two people at my Uni (Andrew and Amanda - bless 'em both) who re-wrote the Two Ways To Live tracked in a "how non Xns read two ways to live" kind of way. This is what it looked like

And this is what it said

1. God is the loving dictator of the world.
He made the world.
He made us token rulers of the world subservient to Him.

2. We all reject the ruler God.
And try to enjoy life without God.
But we all fail because we are hopeless.

3. God's punishment for our rebellion is death.
That's right he made us the way we are and then damned us for being so.

4. Because it was his job God condescended to send his son into the world the enigmatic Jesus Christ.
Jesus was a sucker because he died in our place and took our punishment.

5. Three days later God allegedly raised Jesus to life.
Having conquered death Jesus brings a false sense of security and has become the big dictator of frame 1.

6. So two ways to live.
A. Live normally have a good time then die.
B. Learn to live with this big moral guilt trip hanging over our heads.

As I drove home thinking about this I listen to Tom Lyberg's latest podcast Faith and Doubt Redux. He was saying things similar to what I had said in my Relating to a Postmodern mind Part 1 and Part 2 posts. As a postmodern Xn I see myself as a traveler and others as travelers I may know more than someone else or they may know more than me. By the time I get to the end of my travels I may have completely changed what I believe or I may have just tweaked my faith a little bit. No matter which it is I'm always open to the idea that my ideas may need a serious overhaul and that I at any given moment I am limited by what I know and what I have experienced. Because of this I cannot approach someone with a six point track and tell them "This is the truth about God life the universe and everything, you might have thought it would be more complicated than this but hey presto here it is in six simple boxes."

I guess I'm on of the postmodern Xns that Tom Lyberg speaks about when he says...

"Slowly some postmodern Xns are rediscovering the Jesus who yelled at God for abandoning him on the cross. They're connecting with the frightened unbelieving disciples who ran from the first sign of trouble. They understand the words of the ancient spiritual giants who questioned God's very existence and affirmed it at the same time"

The best travelers are the one's who know that they are in a unknown territory and that they don't know everything and that they want to learn as much as you can from everyone else. In turn these are the sort of people that other travelers will come asking questions of. So if you doubt that you know everything relax, celebrate even and keep traveling.

Have I got this to look forward too?

I am only recently a father but I wonder how long it will be before my daughter inadvertently teaches me not to value my material possessions as much.