Tuesday ramblings

God's love...
There are deep divisions in our world with people hating Muslims and Muslims hating the west. I go to the fire stations where at the moment the average fire fighter is looking with suspicion on "management". "They are trying to screw us!" The fire fighters have a kind of strike going trying to force a settlement on their contract. We have a bunch of "different" guys who come to Space2B, others don't like them being there.  I find it hard not to get resentful at people who write me off as if I was a religious nut of some kind. To some people it seems like any person of faith is an inferior out of date low-intelligence life form.  It annoys me that these ardent atheists do not engage the more scholarly and modern thinking theologians. They prefer to write us all off as if we were believers in a flat earth. On the other hand I get angry at fundamentalist Christians who in my view distort the way of Jesus. There is no doubt I have offended a few conservative brothers and sisters, who would write me off. Sometimes I find myself angry at people who do not try to help themselves, who expect endless handouts as their right. Divisions abound, and we all can write people off, as the "other" "unacceptable" "outcast".  I found a challenging statement in my preparation for this Sunday. "If God does not love us ALL, he does not love at all." An implication is that as soon as I say "I hate..." I am denying the love of God for me that I might like to claim. Anyway it challenged and rang bells with me. Everybody, even bad buggers, is loved of God.
St John NZ say "no" to on site workplace chaplains.
It is official. At a national level St John Ambulance have, because of financial issues, ended the concept of on-site workplace support chaplains and I am to finish visiting the Dunedin centres at the end of the month. They are going to a different system of support for staff. I have known this for a month or so, but local staff have not known. When I went there today the first person I saw said, "You will still come and visit us won't you?" (News had gone around in an official email) Others said the same thing. "You can still pop across and have lunch?" The difficulty is that professionally it may not be tolerated. The new support "firm" will not like the competition. When I pointed this out, they just said, "We invite you! Surely we can do that?" It is going to be hard having Dunedin St John HQ virtually opposite the Church, and yet not be able to call. I have been visiting there since 1998/99. (Not sure exactly when I started?) I am contracted for 2 hours a week at St John. As I have said before, I believe there is an incredible amount of support given in the informal "chatting" that I do.  I would do it for nothing, but the system would not allow it. Sometimes in my mind I question the overheads of the Workplace Support "firm" that I work for, and wonder if we are too expensive as a Christian ministry, but better economic minds than mine set the fees. I have enjoyed supporting an organisation like St John, they do so much good.