Sunday night blobbing.. "What's Christianity?"

Tonight I have just blobbed out in front of TV. I seemed to have been busy lately and as soon as I stopped this afternoon, I fell asleep.
Today I led a service on "If the Church were Christian it would care more about love and less about sex." While I did not reveal my total liberalism on the subject, I did try to expand people's thinking. I gave examples of how Church legalism on matters sexual had been life and love inhibiting, rather than life enhancing. I suggested that Jesus would not break relationships with people who lived by different standards, that he would look past the issues we have and see the person, and that his God and Father would be more interested in us having loving, fulfilling, life enhancing intimate relationships. He would be more interested in relationship than legalistic rules and regulations. It was a tiring service, because I knew I was dealing with a tricky and sensitive issues so it required a lot of concentration to make sure I worded it strongly, but sensitively. I had to fight the temptation to be brazen or crass just to stir the pot and look "modern". It was an interesting exercise.
It may have been the subject but I enjoyed a number of indepth discussions after church. I had some good positive feedback about the service, but again I enjoyed conversations with some openness and meaning. I t was time well spent.
Tonight I listened to a sermon by Marcus Borg. I have listened to it before and found his summary of "What is Christianity about?" something I can say "Amen" too. I think I would want to add a bit more "love in action" emphasis... that we are transformed not just by thinking, worship and praying but as we get involved in giving and serving, transformation takes place. But I liked his summary. It is only 15 minutes and worth a listen for its content. (Though he is not the most dynamic of speakers - he is evocative and thoughtful.)
Today my friend and I tried a short spell of running... It was slow and short but it did feel good. I want to run again! I hope I can build up slowly again.

People, people and more people.

The "Round table" and in the background couch & coffee table where much discussion takes place in Space2B

I am sitting in my office having a break before our Friday night Drop-in centre starts. Today I came in to the office with lots of things I had to do. I had some administrative things to do. I had to visit a chaplaincy site, as well as do my normal Friday Chaplaincies. But my day has not got started really. A group was going to use our drop-in area for a meeting so I went up there to tidy it up, and sweep the stairs. I then came down to my office to check emails. A couple who head away on a big OE for three months came in and took my wife and I out for coffee. I came back to the Church and began to talk with an Iraqi man who was visiting Space2B while his wife was next door at Women Across Cultures. (He had an interesting question. He said he heard a young woman say she was "Naked" and yet she was clothed? After asking lots of questions we worked out that she was saying "Knackered" and we had to explain what that was. Then he asked us to explain the "Brass Monkey" Motorbike Rally. Why "Brass Monkey"?  That took some explaining. He told us that he once got "gay" and "guy" confused with hilarious results. It is interesting seeing our language and idioms from another point of view.) Our conversation was interrupted by a Japanese lady who wanted to ask various questions, take photos and exchange email addresses. She runs a settlement group in town and wanted to work in with us. The Iraqi and I went on to talk about all sorts of things including religion, his faith and mine. Others joined us and I was sort of stuck there, even though I needed to go over to St John Ambulance. The morning was completely gone with no "work" work done. I went to St John and talked to people there going through tough times. Back at the Church there were others I had to talk with. At around three the fire stations were expecting me so I went there to converse with yet another group of people, then to a wedding rehearsal. The whole day has been used up in talking with people and my plans for the day have gone out the window! In exactly half an hour, at 6:30 p.m. I will open the door to our drop in centre folk and I will have another three hours of conversing with people. (We ended up having at least 50 people through!) Sometimes my St John Ambulance paramedics will joke and say, "This job would be great if it wasn't for the patients!" My job would be a lot easier to get through if I did not have to talk with people! I guess it is my job... but other deadlines await!

The Drop-in centre a minute before opening time.

Not long after opening... 40+ people have arrived. (many hidden behind the counter and piano. )

Lunch time rant

Where have all the statesmen gone?
I notice the death of Sir Brian Tallboys who was once a National Party M.P. He was around in the days when there were a few real statesmen in politics. I never voted for his party I would have to say, but on both sides of the house there were gentlemen politicians who you could respect and you knew, even though you differed from them, they were men of integrity. Many of today's politicians seem like street fighters compared to some of these guys.  I guess early politicians were not as exposed to the media as the current crop, but there does seem to be a real difference.
One on every committee.
From my teenage years on Youth Committees through to today I have been on a myriad of committees both within the church and in the community. I think every committee I have been on has its people or person who is pedantic! These are the people who make the progressive dreamers on the committees jump through every hoop to get things done. In some ways they are good because they make you examine your dreams. Often however, they feel like a lead weight holding back any change or progress. Bless them, but I often want to scream - "Lighten up!"

A night time working bee.

Son-in-law David checking the state of the weatherboard in his over 100yr old house.

Staggered dwangs (noggins in the North Island and Australia)

My drop saw comes into its own with such work.

Tonight we took all the timber sarking off another wall at my daughter's place. We took all the nails out of the wall and got one row of dwangs (noggins) in. The old wood is really really hard to nail through. It was a good night's work. The cars were frosted up before we headed home. I am enjoying using my drop saw. Tools well used are an investment. I will really love the change this work will make to this planned guest room - when it is completed.

The new Night Shelter location.

The new Dunedin Night Shelter buildings. My mate John is standing beside it. He is  the latest Trust Board member and already so valuable!

The above photos are of the new Dunedin Night Shelter at 18 Lees Street. We are renting two units. The front one is for emergency accommodation and the one behind will be used for meeting a need for short to long term accommodation. Hopefully the rent from the back one will assist in covering the rent for the front one. This is a big step forward for the Night Shelter Trust... lots of thought and a little lost sleep have gone into it. It is exiting to be a part of this group. Being chairman adds to my life experience and while being full on, is a very positive part of my life.

Citizens of the globe.

It is Queens Birthday and I spent today working on renovations at my daughter's house.
We put this frame work in forgetting that the ladder we were standing on splayed at the end.
We had real difficulty extracting it!  

I do love doing carpentry - just plain hard physical work.

I was reading an article about the issues facing immigrants in France. Jean-Luc Melenchon asks a question; "Shouldn't people feel at home wherever they are? How many generations are we going to p... off with this question of immigration and where were you born?" This prompted me to think about the common attitude in many countries now. Immigrants are not welcomed! We had an English couple, immigrants to NZ call at Space2B at Church in their first few weeks of being in the country. They were in a bit of culture shock and were grumpy about several things related to life in New Zealand. It prompted me to ask them, "Why did you leave the UK?" Their response was quick and definite, "Too many immigrants!" and they ranted about the blacks, Muslims, Pakistani's etc. that had taken over their country. I stifled a common comment by New Zealanders about "too many moaning pommes taking over our country!" My son is in Scotland and by the sound of it catches some flack about being an immigrant there. (He is Maori/Samoan so probably is easily noticed) The tragic shootings in Norway indicate this anti-immigrant attitude. It is not bad but a growing feeling around New Zealand, particularly against asians and sometimes Muslim people suffer. Australia has its share of anti-immigrant reaction.  Melenchon's question got me thinking again about being "Global citizens". 


It intrigues me. We struggle to raise funds to keep a viable Night Shelter (for people) going in Dunedin, but an Eco-sanctuary just out of town somehow generated millions of dollars to look after native birds and plants.  Similarly Pandas in China will attract heaps of sympathy, money and love from people throughout the world, but when Asian people come to our shores looking for a decent lifestyle, we say "Go home!" How about we begin to feel a solidarity with all people, like we feel linked to Pandas, native birds and local fauna? How about we see ourselves as citizens of this world? How about we recognise that the problems we face in this world belong to all of us? How about we truly see ourselves as brothers and sisters on the journey of life? A song we sing in Church goes;
We are pilgrims on a journey,
 and companions on the road;
 we are here to help each other
 walk the mile and bear the load.

This is essentially true when the "we" encompasses all people every where. The President in the United States makes a statement and economic markets throughout the world react. We are all impacted. The economies of some relatively small country trembles and world currencies shudder. Forests are cut down in the South American continent, and the weather changes in the Northern Hemisphere. The problems of people facing famine and political oppression in Zimbabwe are really issues the human family must feel. The struggles of the drug addict on Dunedin, NZ streets, are my concern even though I have never touched such drugs. They are my brother or sister! I had a guy come to me at our drop-in on Friday night asking for a blanket, he was sleeping out during freezing nights in Dunedin! I offered the services of the Night Shelter and began to dial the number. "No" he said, he had overstayed his welcome there, and besides "they make you get up early!" He was desperate for food too. Another guy offered him a bed - he took my blanket anyway - but why was he in such dire straits? He gets a benefit?  What addiction consumes his money? Another guy came up, away with the fairies on drugs of some sort. He is often drunk. I said to my wife when we got home, "How would you feel if these guys were your son?" ... It would be heartbreaking... but they are my brothers!


I just think we would truly begin to deal with the massive problems facing our communities and our world if we stopped trying to put people in boxes and saw ourselves as a family, on a journey. When we classify people as untouchable, immigrants, another race, a different class etc. etc. we add to the problems the world faces!


I recall as a student minister visiting an elderly couple. Looking at the photos on the wall I asked about the family. I got told about various ones and their success, but one was never mentioned. I pointed to him in a photo, "What's his name? Where is he?" "He" was somewhere, probably doing no good, - end of discussion. It was like "he" did not exist. He was not a good little Christian boy. They did not want to know about him. They did not want me to know about him. We are often like that. People near and far are struggling with one problem or another, and we don't want to know about them. They are our brothers and sisters, but we are like ostriches burying our heads in the sand.


Some of the words by Bob Dylan that Peter Paul and Mary sang go like this;
How many times must the cannonballs fly
Before they're forever banned?
How many years can some people exist
Before they're allowed to be free?
How many times can a man turn his head
and pretend that he just doesn't see?
Yes, how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry ?
How many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind
The answer is blowing in the wind.
We naive teenage visionaries loved this song nearly five decades ago. The questions still challenge. The answers are still "Blowin' in the wind!"  The world is so much smaller now. We are much closer to each other. We need to be acting and thinking as global citizens, brothers and sisters in the human family! 


I think it was Dag Hammarskjold who wrote;
"Human beings are like parts of a body
created from the same essence.
When one part is hurt and in pain,
the others cannot remain in peace and be quiet.
If the misery of others leaves you indifferent
and with no feelings of sorrow
you cannot be called a human being." 

What's going to happen?

The old fireplace and chimney at our daughter & son-in-laws' house.

The two Daves (son-in-law & me) pulling the chimney to peices.

Further down... I am as stuffed as I look.

End product. Tomorrow we take the sarking off the walls and add frame work.

My wife stacked the bricks... the mortar fell off them.

Latest grand daughter pic... she has grown so much in a week! 

I do wonder what is in store for our community, western society and the world? I have always been concerned and try in my small way to make a difference for good. It may be that having a grand daughter has heightened my concern. Let me outline some events.
Locally.....
We have had a city councillor get caught drink driving for the second time. He is an intelligent leader in the community, but he drinks and drives. I have little patience with intelligent adults doing such things. It is just so dangerous for other innocent people! Here we have a community leader without the commonsense to make other arrangements when he has had a few. It is a sad reflection on our community. Another city councillor wrote a nasty personal email sent around to others, to his enemy on the council. From what I saw, it read like the rantings of a mad man! He has had to apologise, but good grief again a community leader acting like a fruit loop! I am disappointed often with the antics and calibre of the people in leadership positions in our community. There are few true statesmen.
There have been images on TV again of the mayhem of binge drinking on our streets. A paramedic told me that these were not isolated cases confined to big Auckland city but nearly every night occurrences on our city streets in Dunedin. The damage caused, the waste of hospital, ambulance and police resources and in many cases the stuffed up lives are all tragic. Some people interviewed said that they had to "top up" so that they could feel uninhibited enough to dance and party. A bit sad, not being confident enough to be themselves. Where are we falling down, the numbers are horrific.
All around I hear of people losing jobs because of the financial squeeze. I am not convinced about our government's handling of the situation, I think once again it will be the poorer or more vulnerable people carrying the brunt of the problem. I also feel there are blatant and not so blatant attempts at social engineering, which makes you wonder where it will stop. The gap between rich and poor widens and is one of the widest.  I used to think NZ was a pretty egalitarian place to live but not any more.
In the wider world....
I was watching TV and the goings on in the Australian Parliament. Once again leaders in the community behaving in immature ways. I receive emails loaded with anti-muslim sentiments with war mongering intent. The Greek economy is apparently fragile and could like a line of dominos cause more economic woes for Europe and further afield.
Attitudes....
 I was talking to an Iraqi man and asking him why the Iraqi people seem to be turning against one another. He commented that when you feel your people or your family is going to starve your morals go out the window. That is what is worrying me. We live in a a world with a fragile economy. We have tense relationships between some nations and cultures. One of the attitudes in response to this situation is to build bigger fences between "us" and "the others" and to look for scapegoats to hate or blame. We can search for strength by pushing a dangerous "us against them" mentality. This happens internationally. (President Bush's "If you are not with us you are against us" statement.) It can also happen locally. ( Beneficiaries, Maori - whoever - are causing the government overspending.) In other cash strapped times there were accepted moral guidelines. I'm not sure that people were more deeply spiritual or moral but there were community reinforced roles or ways of behaving that kept life running on reasonable lines. These days we don't have that sort of accepted community standards and pressure. People are much more all out for themselves. I tend to think that as communities in the western world we do not have sufficient people with the moral or spiritual grounding or foundations that enable us to react constructively, peacefully and in a unified way to the problems that confront us as communities and on a worldwide scale. I fear for the future. I also feel that whether people are rich or poor we often lack a deep sense of meaning and purpose in life. We have, if you like, a massive poverty of substantial meaning or spiritual depth. Where there is a vacuum all sorts of other lesser meanings (like the scape goats, "tribalism", racism or an unhealthy patriotism) can fill the gap. Sufficient to say that I am fearful of the future.
Hope...
I see some signs of hope. I meet various people who may not have a traditional christian spirituality, but are finding a connection with the environment and are moving on to sense a solidarity with all creation including humankind. I enjoy being around these people and their attitudes give me some hope. I may sound pessemistic. I do meet lots of people, and nearly all are good fun to know, are generally kind and well meaning. But I am fearful they do not have deeper foundations and when the pressure comes on I fear they will slide into reacting in ways that "look after number one" only.  Then again, when the pressure comes on it may cause them to discover a deeper essence and unity in life and they will make noble choices. I hope so.
DIY experiences...
Our daughter and her husband helped us with our bathroom so it is our turn to help them. They are doing up, insulating and lining a room in their house. Yesterday we pulled down a chimney and old fire place. I also went to the Night Shelter to do a couple of little jobs. One was installing stays on two window frames. Unfortunately I cracked a window. Oh well .... you cant win them all!