Job Interview Continued

What if I ask myself the same questions I asked in the previous post? This seems appropriate as an exercise for Lent.

"What will your strategy be?"

I tend to approach daily life reactively. This makes life very busy. I seldom take the time to ponder the underlying, often hidden dynamics that create the problems and opportunities I am responding to. This is no strategy at all. It is merely survival.

I remember an interview with Bishop Tutu in which he was asked how he managed such a busy life. He responded that he spends two hour a day praying.

Those who understand spiritual maturity speak of one of the primary benefits of such introspection and examination being that one can respond spontaneously and authentically to daily events in ways that encourage what is important rather than merely reacting to the urgent.

If I presume to complain about the state of the nation, perhaps I should start with the state of me soul. Gandhi said, “Be the change you wish to see in the world”?

“What is your hope / vision?”

Where is my hope? What does my budget say about my hope? My hope I guess is in Sanlam. I am insured to the hilt. I have often wondered about Western culture’s obsession with pension funds. Arguably it is the young looking after the old, but personally it feels like trusting an impersonal institution for my care rather than my own children or community…

“Whom (what) do you trust?”

Do I trust Jesus? Yikes, what a question! The oke’s already in heaven, so the one running the risks is me. Truth is, there is no cavalry when the shit hits the fan. So it’s a tall order. Do I really want to follow this man?

Yes. At the end of the day, I can think of nothing more meaningful than the cause of Jesus’ adventure. I am alive because Jesus has shown me how to be alive.

Nice Net Nibbles

This is a selection of stuff I've found interesting from the net from the last three months. Can't remember who sent it all to me.

These happy pots are cleverly created from the reflection of the adjacent burners, a piece of pasta and a bottle top. (Link)

Damn! This kid is funny...

Last year was the 10th memorium of Carl Sagan. He is one of my heroes and you can read what people have to say about his memory here.

You can download free documentaries from this site. Some of them are really good.

Another really clever design idea. Great toy.

This is a clip from an Attenborough documentary which I've seen a few times in the last few months. It's obviously getting people freaked out.

If you like maps and you have a social conscience, then this site is going to keep you locked in for a long time. It's fascinating.

This one is funny for a while and then disconcerting. Find out where Santa is...

David Bayne has been visiting SHADE and told me about the black ring he wears on his finger. It's worth reading David's blog to hear the story.

I found this video amazing. It expanded my ideas about what constituted thinking, personality, personhood.

This is a practical joke I'd love to try. Somebody's car has been covered in post-it notes!

Here is an interview with Richard Dawkins about his recent book, "The God Delusion." I think he makes some valuable points. This is why I tend to agree more with Dawkins scientific "fundamentalism" more than with religious fundamentalism. I found this quote from Dawkins particularly meaningful. Dawkins wants this to be read at his funeral:

"We are going to die and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they're never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place, but who will, in fact, never see the light of day, outnumber the sand grains of Sahara. ...In the face of these stupefying odds, it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here. Here's another respect in which we are lucky. The universe is older than a hundred million centuries. Within a comparable time, the sun will swell to a red giant and engulf the earth. Every century of hundreds of millions has been in its time, or will be when its time comes, the present century. The present moves from the past to the future like a tiny spotlight inching its way along a gigantic ruler of time. Everything behind the spotlight is in darkness, the darkness of the dead past. Everything ahead of the spotlight is in the darkness of the unknown future. The odds of your century being the one in the spotlight are the same as the odds that a penny, tossed down at random, will land on a particular ant crawling somewhere on the road from New York to San Francisco. You are lucky to be alive and so am I."

And on a similar vein, Peter published a valuable contribution on his blog.

Job Interview

Read Luke 4:1-13

Some have compared the temptation of Jesus to a job-interview. These would be fascinating questions to ask in a job interview. I extrapolate some questions we might ask of our leaders now that we have heard the “State of the Nation” address and the budget speech.

What will your strategy be?

Firstly, Jesus is tempted to turn stone into bread. Jesus responds that people live on more than bread – they need the Word of God (cf. Matthew’s version of the story). I presume that Jesus refers to the prophets that came before him, whose consistent refrain was for Israel to care for the “widow, the orphan and the stranger.” These were the most vulnerable in society then as they are even today. A society is measured by how well it cares for such people.

The people who applauded the recent speeches in Parliament, including some of the rebuttals by the opposition party and other parties, were largely powerful and wealthy. The poor and disenfranchised were not applauding…

Jesus is tempted to meet people’s immediate needs as a way of gaining their favour. Instead he spends his time, not only responding as best he can to their immediate distress, but also examining the systems that cause ordinary people’s distress. There was nothing in the President or Mr. Manuel’s addresses that left me confident we are addressing the causes of our nation’s distress.

What is your hope / vision?

Secondly, Jesus is tempted to embrace Satan’s power and give his allegiance to the expediency of the devil. Jesus responds that such worship is for God alone. Only God deserves our ultimate allegiance.

Where one’s hope is can be seen immediately when one examines one’s budget. South Africa’s hope is in Big Business. We believe that creating a climate that benefits the largest companies is where our hope lies. Not in small businesses, not in the vast majority of the people of this country – the wretched of the earth - but in those companies whose Apartheid complicity - not to mention inhuman African operations - has yet to be interrogated. We are investing in “economic growth” (read “Trickle Down Economics – ala Thatcher / Reagan) and “black economic empowerment” (read “buddy economic empowerment”) rather than genuine social capital.

Jesus is tempted to follow political expediency and instead follows the dangerous path of compassion. I shudder to think that our leaders know nothing of the truth of people’s suffering.

Whom (or what) do you trust?

Thirdly, Jesus is tempted to play dice with God; availing himself to the truth of Scripture. But instead, Jesus points out how Scripture itself is contradictory.

For the past 13 years our government has implemented economic policies consistent with the rules of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Adherence to these policies is required of all countries that receive loans from these institutions. Most of the countries that have received such loans are from the so-called developing world. These policies have consistently led to the impoverishment of the vast majority of these country’s people. South Africa has no loans with the IMF or the World Bank that require adherence to these policies. South Africa implements them because they are policies laid down by the economic bible of globalisation.

Jesus is tempted to seek the security of religious fundamentalism yet casts himself instead in faith upon the mercy of a Living God who goes with him to the glory and agony of a cross. I recall the words of my friend, Alan Storey, “I do not follow the Bible, I read the Bible, that I may follow Jesus.”

Our leaders have retreated in fear from the risk of trusting the people who elected them. They have placed the trust in people who have never lived without clean water and electricity, lived in fear of state police or worked 16 hour days. What these “experts” know about the “real” world leaves me at a loss for words…

From Sojourners

Diana Butler Bass: Giving Up Lent for Lent
A few years ago, I stopped struggling with my bad attitude toward Lent. I gave up Lent for Lent. I skipped Ash Wednesday, made no promises to God, and instituted no rigorous prayer schedule. I wanted to enjoy one March with no onerous spiritual obligations. An odd thing happened, however, during my Lenten non-observance. I began to understand and experience Lent in new and deeper ways. When freed from expectations and requirements, sermons and scriptures spoke to my soul. By the end of Lent, I found myself willingly attending extra services, including two Good Friday liturgies. On Easter Sunday, the resurrection broke over me with unexpected power – with love joyfully overcoming the intense introspection that built during my non-Lenten weeks.

Love's True Form

Luke 9:28 - 36

Thinking about transfiguration I came across several transformations this week in the papers: Zebulon Dread, the Observatory-based cultural terrorist famed for his publication “Voetsek!” has become a Hare Krishna, trading in his dreadlocks for the shaven countenance of a pilgrim. This coming week hundreds of good looking guys will become fantastic, peacock Queens as Cape Town hosts the 7th annual Pride festival. In the near future Cape Town International may become La Guma International. Then I think of the changes that have happened in South Africa since 1994. We are accustomed to change in SA.

Like all these changes, the transfiguration generated a mixed response from the disciples: awe, fear, worship. Such an event demands attention, demands a response. The editorial page of most papers attests to South Africans’ response to changes in the last 13 years, but Jesus’ disciples keep silent. Strange.

Another strange thing about Jesus transfiguration is that it happens in the middle of the story. This is the kind of thing Hollywood would put at the end of the story – a dramatic, dazzling transformation of the hero of the story.

But the glory and climax of Jesus' story is still to come. Jesus' story upsets our ideas about how a story should be told. Like Peter and the other disciples we will be shocked at the awesome terror of Christ’s Cross: Christ’s true glory.

Sarah compares the transfiguration to two movies: “Beauty and the Beast” and “Shrek”. In “Beauty and the Beast” there is a transfiguration as we would expect to find it: the ugly hero of the story is transformed into a handsome prince. In Shrek, Princess Fiona is cursed and becomes an ogre every evening at sunset. In her transfiguration she is transformed into “loves true form” but this is an ogre, not a princess! Fiona’s transfiguration subverts our understanding of beauty but is entirely appropriate since Shrek, an ogre, loves her.

Jesus’ transfiguration is similar in that it too subverts our understanding of glory.

In this painting of the Transfiguration by Raphael, one can see some of the subversion intended by Luke. Jesus, Moses and Elijah are painted in typically heavenly fashion, but one’s eye is immediately drawn to the crowd below. A woman points to a crowd of people needing healing and attention. The nine remaining disciples seem reluctant to respond. One even seems to suggest that attention should be focussed on what is happening on the mountain.

In the telling of the story, Jesus too rushes back down the mountain to attend to the real business at hand.

The Transfiguration story has all the attributes one would expect in ancient literature when the protagonist is being held up as something special. Apart from the fantastic demonstration of light and wonder, there are the specific clues to Jesus’ authority within the Jewish tradition: Moses and Elijah.

But the story appears in the wider story like wayward punctuation. It is almost as if Luke is saying: “Here are the required heavenly rubber stamps, now let’s get on with the business of healing and transformation...”

The embrace of humanity is far more important to the Divine than the glory of heaven. Those who call themselves by his name would do well to adopt the same kind of worship.

Turn up the volume of your life

When I was little our bathroom had the usual clutter that accumulates around most people’s baths, but there was one piece of bathroom detritus that fascinated me. It was a rock that floated. Mom and Dad called it “pumice”. I later learned that pumice is formed in the bowels of a volcano when rock is liquid and bubbles are trapped in the hardening liquid, like the fizz in a cola. It is the bubbles in the hardened rock, which allows pumice to float. The bubbles also give pumice a sandpapery texture just rough enough for smoothing calluses. I spent most of my childhood barefoot and my hands and feet often became cracked as calluses became too big. So the pumice was a useful item in my bath time.

Look at the calluses on your hand. What stories do they tell? What do they say about the work you do? Manual labour tends to make the calluses at the base of each finger quite prominent. Guitar players will have calluses on the ends of their left hand fingers from pressing the strings on the fret. If you wash your hands using a rock to knead the cloth, the heel of your hand will be callused. And if you wear a ring it will create a callus where it rests on your finger – something the astute will notice when being picked up in a bar by the ring-less…

Calluses are useful to protect our bodies from the daily grind we subject them to. Sometimes, however, a callus can become too hard, too big, it cracks and become infected.

Read Isaiah 6:9-10

Isaiah is instructed to harden people’s hearts so they will not repent; a strange message.

Steve Cook points out that the hardening of people’s hearts is a form of emotional callus. A callus on the hand is useful and so we don’t notice it until it becomes a problem when the hardening becomes so hard that it no longer flexes with the surrounding skin. It is then that we notice the problem and deal with it. Similarly, an emotional callus is useful up to a point in protecting us from some of the traumas we face, but it becomes a problem when the callus is no longer able to flex, to mould to the circumstances of our lives. At this point it cracks and can become infected – perhaps with cynicism or bitterness.

Isaiah must push the people to the point where their emotional callousness becomes a problem they are forced to deal with.

Listen to these words from Paul Brand in “Fearfully and Wonderfully Made”:

“A troubling phenomenon recurs among young Christians reared in solid homes and sound churches. After living their early years as outstanding examples of Christian faith, many become spiritual dropouts. Did they fail because they concentrated on the exterior, visible Christian life? Did they learn to mimic certain behaviors, nuances of words, and emotional responses? Crayfish-like, did they develop a hard exterior that resembled everyone else’s and conclude such was the kingdom of God, while inside they were weak and vulnerable?

... An outside shell can seem attractive, trustworthy, and protective. It certainly has advantages over a dead, useless skeleton or over no skeleton at all. But God desires for us a more advanced skeleton that serves as it stays hidden.” (thanks to SojoNet for the quote).

Part of the reason we become emotionally callused is survival. It’s a coping mechanism: one that works but it has diminishing returns as the callus grows.

To switch metaphors: yesterday in our biker’s circle we talked about feelings and how important they are. Like the lights on the motorbike dashboard feelings are signs that alert one to needs within one’s system. Putting duct-tape over the oil light isn’t going to make the oil problem go away, yet this is exactly what we tend to do with our feelings – we ignore and bury them and the need becomes a problem. Emotions are signs that there is something in the system that needs attention.

Read Luke 5:1-11

We often think of Peter and his fellow fishers as living an idyllic country life. As Sarah Dylan Breuer points out, though, it was anything but… Apart from the obvious dangers of the Sea of Galilee which apparently is tempestuous for its size, the fishers of Peter’s day were caught in a debt trap, having to pay taxes over an above their usual overheads. There was also the cost of fishing rights on the Sea. At the end of each day, there was seldom anything left for their families. With no insurance, the daily worry of injury or accident must have worn away at their lives.

When Jesus asks them to cast their nets on the other side and their nets come up busting with fish, their world changed forever. They no longer were consumed by the daily question, “Will I catch enough?” but from then on their lives were determined by the question “Can I find enough people to help me haul in this generous catch?”

The emotional callus of daily worry is transformed into an emotional openness to new possibilities and people.

This is the promise of spiritual maturity that the Good News offers: a transformative experience that liberates me from the narrow confines of my daily grind so that I can see people as people again, not just instruments, clients, allies, enemies, providers, takers and so on. I can be transformed from callousness to compassion. My heart becomes soft again so that, like a child, I am sensitive to so much more of the world around me.

This doesn’t mean that the spiritual journey is one of instant and perpetual joy. On the contrary, Peter embarks on an emotional roller-coaster ride with Jesus all the way to Jerusalem. As one reads that story, one cannot but be amazed at the volume of the emotions Peter experiences. It is an intense experience – the highs are mountainous (remember the transfiguration?) and the lows are hellish (remember his denial of Jesus?).

Let me switch metaphors again: when we were talking about feelings yesterday William pointed out that out feelings are like a Hi-fi system without a graphic equalizer. The graphic equalizer allows one to manipulate the volume of specific frequencies so that, for instance, one can make the music have more base or treble. But in the emotional system, there is only a single volume control. Turn down the volume when one is angry or sad, and one finds that affection and ebullience are muted too.

The spiritual journey tunes us in to our feelings so that we know our needs more acutely. Similarly we can tune in to the needs of others because we become more sensitive. We become more compassionate.

The discipline of the spiritual life is to spend time with emotions, to discover the underlying needs. This is especially true of the darker emotions. Spiritual maturity is characterised by an ability to know oneself and so be in control of oneself. Feelings become the wind that blows through a flute each with a distinct note that together creates music – to borrow a Buddhist metaphor!

Discovering the energy of our personal emotional systems also tunes us to the possibilities in the world. Instead of being overwhelmed by the massive problems the world faces our creative energies are released to find innovative strategies of dealing with these problems. We can move from the cynical, “There just isn’t enough to fill this bottomless pit” to the insightful, “Poverty is stupid in a world that has enough but will not share.” (Bono paraphrased)

Jesus is calling you to the bounty and wealth of your own inner life and the gift of vulnerability to others. Discover the joy that comes when you spend time with your own feelings – especially the dark ones. Discover the connection that comes when you open yourself up to those around you and trust them with your feelings. Discover the power of God’s generosity in your own life and the world.

May your heart grow soft and supple.