Month: May 2013

Fewer with More Information

CBC and others have reported on the work of Canada’s privacy commissioner, who is about to end her term in that position. I have tended not to be too concerned about such things, thinking that if I have nothing to hide, I don’t need to worry. Something in this report made me think that is probably a naive attitude. The commissioner makes the observation that more and more information, about all of us, is in the hands of fewer and fewer organizations. We often hear about how more and more money is in the hands of fewer and fewer – the rich are getting richer and the poor poorer. This points out that a similar thing is happening with information. I suspect if one were to dig into this more deeply, one would find at least some correlation between the two kinds of wealth: money and information. That adds up to immense power, and power, inevitably, gets abused. That’s a concern for all of us. So maybe I should stop being so naive, and we all should pay a bit more attention to these things.

The Book of Revelation has something to say about the coming together of various kinds of power, and demanding our allegiance and even worship. There are forces in whose interest it is to keep us in a state of fear and dissatisfaction, so we will depend on them and they will profit by us. This is something we can do something about, by being discerning, and making wise choices.

Meanwhile, it is also not a bad thing to keep from having anything you feel you need to hide.

 

Major Theme

Every second Wednesday morning, I help lead a Bible study at a seniors’ residence. It is so wonderful to get into the Word with people who have, for the most part, walked with God all of their lives. As is so often the case with ministry, in ministering (supposedly), I find myself more ministered to. I have noticed a major theme. While, in honesty, there is acknowledgement of times of doubt and weakness, there is experience of a God who never abandons us, and whose mercy never fails. Steadfast love, the Old Testament calls it. I count on it, but know it comes at a cost.

Space Sharing

In a report on Cmdr Chris Hadfield’s first appearance since returning to earth, the astronaut is reported to have said that his experiences were “too good” to keep to himself. As a result, we were all blessed by his sharing on social media. ‘”There is beautiful imagery, there’s poetry in what is happening, there is purpose in what is happening,” he said. “There is beauty to it, there is hope in it and it’s an international thing.”

We  have heard much about this. What we do not hear so much is that he managed to do this sharing while not being diverted from his essential work, with which, he says, he was “very busy.” I find this to be an important challenge to our own sense of busy-ness, being caught up our own responsibilities and concerns, and not sharing, or maybe even noticing, what is of beauty in our own daily “space.” We need to notice and share what is of beauty and purpose, not just through social media, but in our daily conversations, and in thanksgiving back to the author of beauty and purpose. You don’t have to be a famous astronaut to make a difference in the day of others. And we are blessed ourselves in the process.

Smuggling KFC to Gaza

http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/05/17/it-takes-a-smuggler-to-satisfy-kfc-cravings-in-gaza/?xid=rss-topstories&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+time%2Ftopstories+%28TIME%3A+Top+Stories%29

A number of major news outlets in the last couple of days have made much of a report, apparently first reported by the Christian Science Monitor, that KFC is being smuggled to Gaza from Egypt. So what? As the reports themselves note, lots of things are smuggled through the many tunnels. Is there a touch of condescension in this? Anyway, maybe it points to an observation we should make: that we have more in common than things that make us different. Are we in the more ‘sophisticated’ culture above such cravings?

in the early church, food was a major issue related to unity between colliding cultres. Maybe we have a clue here toward better negotiations–between nations or people in conflict of any kind: Put food on the negotiating table that all can enjoy. It may be a kind of communion.
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The Fear-Power Matrix

The first of three messages I’m calling Essentials of Community on Sunday May 5 considered peace to be the first essential. That’s peace as the opposite of fear. While, thankfully, we do not have the big obvious reasons to have a culture of fear, not, say as we would if we were living in Syria, fear seems to be the seething undercurrent of much of our life. It’s beneath the anger that seems to spew forth at the slightest provocation. Fear creates distrust; it is behind self destructive behaviours. it ruins relationships, diminishes community.

Fear has a cousin, or maybe more like a sibling: power. Fear and power feed off one another. I call it the fear-power matrix. You do not have to be a paranoid conspiracy theorist to recognize that there are those whose power depends on, feeds on, and promotes a culture of fear. The human’s first sin, we read in Genesis 3, was for a power grab, and fear immediately was born. Hiding from God ensued. God asked, “Where are you?” (Genesis 3:9).

The last part of John 14 pictures a God who wants to reside with and in us, displacing these trespassers in our lives, fear and power. They do not belong. We accept them as given parts of reality, but it is not what God intends for us, at least that’s what I get from this. Jesus said if we follow his word, he and the Father will dwell with us. If we pattern our lives after Jesus’ self-giving service and obedience to his will, we will experience a new resident in our lives. In answer to the question of John 14:22, Jesus says that instead of some earth-shaking public spectacle, he will continue to work through a community of people to share this new possibility in and to the larger community. And at the heart of it all will be a peace, such as the world cannot give, a peace that accompanies the gift of the Spirit, the “counselor” or “helper” or “advocate” (as paraclete is variously translated) whom we will find alongside us. We find God, then, within and beside us. The world cannot give this peace. The world can only express peace as a wish on a Christmas card, or by imposing order aimed at controlling external factors associated with fear, without touching – and perhaps increasing – the fear we find within anyway, because of our basic insecurity, which Christ offers to shatter.