The Kingdom of God

In my reading for Sunday I came across this which I think is worth a listen. 

After years in Church ministry I am convinced that most Churches, Christians and non-Christians (who think they know) have essentially misunderstood Jesus. There is a part of me looking forward to breaking free of the distorted religion of the Church and not having to feel like I am carrying distorted baggage or having to compromise.

The Dunedin Night Shelter now has a website. You might like to check it out. There are several ways you may be able to help us out.

Sometimes I listen Keith. :-) 

Mid week stewing...

Two NZ soldiers killed and others injured in Afghanistan
Over the weekend when we were celebrating rowing gold medals at the Olympics we got the news of two young men killed in Afghanistan fighting as NZ soldiers, and others quite badly wounded. On Sunday evening returning from my walk I called at a garage to buy petrol and saw on the counter war comics for sale. How I used to devour them as a child! I loved marching soldiers, warships and the odd occasions when my dad told war stories. (He did not often do it, just if some old soldier was visiting they sometimes shared experiences. He ended up a Regimental Sargent Major in the NZ Artillery in the Desert and in Italy.) Now I abhor war. The more I hear of the troubles in Europe, the Middle East and in Africa I realise that the destructive ripples of the two world wars fought many years ago, continue into this century. Our Prime Minister commented that both men were not married and did not have children, that it was good there were no children who lost a father. Yeah but..? There is still a profound loss in that direction, the loss of unborn sons and daughters and grandchildren, they will never be! I know it is two lives and the likes of America loses many more, but I am sad at such a loss. I hope they have not died in vain. I share two poems.
Waste
Waste of Muscle, waste of Brain,
Waste of Patience, waste of Pain,
Waste of Manhood, waste of Health, 
Waste of Beauty, waste of Wealth, 
Waste of Blood, and waste of Tears, 
Waste of Youth's most precious years, 
Waste of ways the Saints have trod, 
Waste of Glory, waste of God, - War!

By Studdart-Kennedy a famous chaplain of World War I
and..
Victory
I .... What a fine statue!
Myself ...... It is Victory.
I .... Proud figure!
Myself .... We won the war.
I ..... Why, there's a tear in her eye!
Myself .... I know. We did not win the enemy.

- Arthur B. Rhinow.

Dr Martin Luther King said something like, "The only force that can turn an enemy into a friend is love!" I somehow think we add to the terror in the world by relying on military might and violent methods to bring about change. I am sad at the loss of life and the ongoing destruction of life, relationships and trust.

She got an Olympic Silver! Celebrate that!
When I checked the internet this morning the news said how our (NZ's) celebrated shot put champion Valerie Adams, had lost. "Valerie Adams falls short of shot put gold!" read the headlines. On the radio as I drove to the office various people were speculating why she lost. Everything sounded doom and gloom because we put expectations on her that she would win gold. Her opponent threw a distance Valerie has never thrown before. Valerie threw quite a bit further than she did when she got gold four years ago. But the way they were talking it was as if she came last? She did not get gold, but she did get an Olympic Silver, and that is worth celebrating! She did well! You go girl. You did fabulously anyway! We, the public and media, sit in our armchairs and put so much pressure on our athletes. Celebrate her effort and achievement! 

My wife up north enjoying grand daughter Edith.

Wifeless for a few days.
My wife has flown North to visit the much photographed grand daughter. I am home alone, able to eat and drink what I like, sleep diagonally across the bed and have my music up loud. I am sitting in my office now, heat pump cranked up high, "Diana Tribute" CD's playing loud with an after dinner beer. This morning I left home having done laundry, washed dishes, fed myself, the hens and the goats. I can cope! ... But I had to get up early to do it all. I am strange. I enjoy the house to myself for a time, but at the airport I had a lump in my throat because I would loved to have traveled with her. She was going to enjoy time with family and I will miss out on sharing that time with her. 

Scary "plumbing" problems
I have been suffering from some inconvenient and slightly scary men's "plumbing" problems. Today I had an appointment at a specialist's clinic at the hospital. They are going to try something over the next six weeks, if that doesn't work then they are going to admit me for some serious exploratory surgery. Of course there are many much worse off than I, but the uncertainty of it all is distracting. I have all these people expecting me to keep on doing stuff, and there is a part of me wanting to yell, "Hang on! Back off! I just want to hop off the treadmill a while so that I can get this sorted!" But it probably is a good thing to just keep doing the normal, but sometimes I want to scream, "But what about me?" "Lord give me patience... and I want it NOW!"

The Civic Centre (Town Hall) Dunedin where the City Council meets.

Prayer at the City Council meeting.
It was all a bit rushed because I had Night Shelter stuff to do on my day off, but on Monday I took my turn at opening the City Council meeting with a prayer. Last time I did this it felt like an insult to me and to God, since the city councillors seemed to be like naughty school kids forced to go through a meaningless ritual. I nearly turned the invitation down on this score. This occasion seemed better. My prayer went like this....

"Let's spend some time remembering the NZ soldiers killed and wounded in Afghanistan..... We think of families, friends here in NZ and colleagues in the defense forces - the impact this event will have on them all. .... May all be surrounded by supportive love at this time.
- We pray that their sacrifice will not be in vain. May there be a constructive, life affirming peace in that country in time to come.
- We are thankful for the Olympics - may this sporting event that creates a sense of unity and harmony send ripples throughout the world to make a difference in places of enmity and strife.
- We are thankful for Dunedin City, it's beautiful setting, the friendly culture and its special nature. We are thankful for the growing diversity of cultures and ethnicity amongst us. This enriches our life.
- We recognise too that many citizens face challenging circumstances in the current economic climate. Indeed we as a city face challenges also.
- We come Lord, recognising the awesome privilege and responsibility of being leaders in this community. We are thankful that each at this table brings knowledge, abilities and experience. We pray for wisdom and a sense of collegiality so that we can creatively deal with the challenges we face together and use what each brings. ... In Jesus name... Amen."

It was a rushed effort, while trying to do many other things. My prayer did a lot of good??? Headlines in the Newspaper this morning read.. "Allegations and threats flew when a Dunedin City Council meeting erupted yesterday ..."
Oh well I won't have to do it again... thank the Lord.

"I need a few bucks to..."

"Can I have a few bucks?"

I love this drawing I got off the internet. I meet each as an individual and value my friendships with many.

I have given away perhaps thousands of dollars over the years. I often get people asking for money.
There is one lady who comes to me and says she wants to see me "in private". She bats her eyelids, puts on those puppy dog eyes, and tells me she has been raped again, or that somebody stole her purse and could she have "x" number of dollars until she gets her benefit? My wife does not like me "seeing her in private" she quite rightly says it puts me in danger of all sorts of accusations. I have sometimes given her food, but never money. She protests that she needs to buy "meat, or fresh bread or milk and needs money". I know that she flats with a number of men who use drugs, and I'm pretty sure she also uses. This week I did not give her money, she looked at me sadly and wandered off.
I was phoned up by a man who did not even introduce himself, he assumed I would recognise his voice.  He needed furniture moved and "you have a van Dave, you could move it for me!" "No I don't have a van now." "Yes you do... it won't take you long!" "No I don't have a van." "Oh... you will know somebody with a van... could you get somebody to help out?" I did not know somebody with a van who was generous (or silly) enough to do it, so I said, "No I don't.... sorry can't help you!" He tried once more to convince me to assist him, but I finally convinced him I would not help and he hung up. Good grief, if you want somebody to help you at least have the courtesy to introduce yourself! I think he was a Christmas dinner regular. Should I have helped? Am I mean? I have helped lots of people move over the years.
Another man at the drop-in centre I got playing table tennis with. He did not ask for money. As we shared a cup of tea and conversation after the games he told me about his situation. He told how he would be bludging off friends for a week before his boss paid him. He seemed genuine and was not asking. I knew I had $20 left of some money given for benevolence so I went to the office put it in an envelope and handed it to him. He protested, but was pleased to be able to go buy some baked beans. Was he cunningly telling me his story so that I would feel sorry and give him money? I don't think so.
On Saturday late afternoon a man rang me with a long tale of woe. Would I give him some money for food. I listened to his story and thought "he's telling lies!" I had nothing but my well honed BS detector to go on so I truthfully told him that my benevolent fund and the food cupboard at the church was empty so I could not help him. I pointed him toward the Night Shelter which he did not want. There he could have food and lodgings free. This made me certain he wanted money, but not for food. Unknown to me he turned up before Church this morning asking for me. My wife dealt with him and she too did not give him money. She said he seemed scary and desperate (drug addiction). I had a phone call from a church minister along the road from me about 25 minutes before church started. He had gone along there and was trying them out.
My wife received her first pension this week. There was a need at the Night Shelter and she decided she would rather pay for it than have me trying to fix it myself... so her first pension was posted off to the treasurer.
All these have happened in the last week. I have developed a certain hardness over the years. I think sometimes people make silly choices and it does not hurt them to go hungry. Bailing them out all the time can just support their lifestyle. I have also developed a well honed bullshit detector. I have sometimes said bluntly, "No I am not giving you money, I don't believe your story!" When they have protested I have said, "Don't waste your time trying to convince me. Try it on some other mug." I have been threatened with "the Mongrel Mob"... "I know where you live". But I think over all I am generous with my time and money toward people in need, but I am not stupid. It is a hard balance. In the 1970s when I began ministry, there was perhaps the occasional itinerant who would try it on. Now it is a constant demand, even when word gets around that you are not the softest touch in town. People at the drop-in know I am there to support them, but they also know they cannot easily rip me off.  I do appreciate honesty and real need and am often generous when I know I am not being lied to. I am experienced with these sorts of people but I know other ministers who frequently give money when they should not. If you are a praying person, pray for us ministers having to decide such things.
This week I will spend hours holding a bucket outside supermarkets and such places, looking hopefully at people's faces wanting them to donate money to the Night Shelter. I hope they are generous!

Thoughts while flushing the toilet.

The new toilet cistern during renovations

I changed the toilet cistern on our toilet when we were doing up our bathroom. I changed it to one of those which sits on the back of the toilet. It is nice, cute, doesn't take up much room and looks compact. (I guess "cute" is not a word to describe a dunny!)
As I fitted it I recalled the Night Tech Plumbing Class on installing toilet cisterns. One of the essential plumbing principles for installing toilet systems went like this... "The distance between the cistern and the bowl shall be as long as practicably possible to enable a forceful flow of water into the bowl with each flush. This helps ensure complete removal of soiled paper and waste matter from the bowl." So built into our plumbing "DNA" was the fact that good plumbing practice allowed for a decent drop for the flushing water to fall before it hit the bowl, so that it hits the bowl with some force, cleaning the bowl and aiding the hasty removal of the poo and/or pee. As I installed this squat, cute looking cistern I commented to my wife that this goes against my plumbing principles! It felt like I was breaking the moral code of a good plumber! In the name of modernity, and making my bathroom look contemporary, I did it, against my better judgement.
The plumbing principles were right! Mostly it works OK. But more often than it should it does not do the job as well as it ought. (I will spare you the details.) Quite simply it breaks this plumbing principle. You cannot flout plumbing lore and get away with it!
I think that is true in life. There are basic principles of life, that run deeper than just cultural norms, and if in your lifestyle you flout them, you will pay for it. These principles are not so much some arbitrary moral laws, but more like values and priorities we sometimes neglect in our lifestyle. When we ignore them life becomes more difficult and less than it could otherwise be.
Writer Stephen Covey died recently. He wrote the book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People." and other books. In a personal note at the end of the book he says this...
"As I conclude this book, I would like to share my own personal conviction concerning what I believe to be the source of correct principles. I believe that correct principles are natural laws, and that God, the Creator and Father of us all, is the source of them, and also the source of our conscience. I believe that to the degree people live by this inspired conscience, they will grow to fulfill their natures; to the degree that they do not, they will not rise above the animal plane."
My religious terminology might be different, but essentially I agree. President Obama when he was a senator said,
"I'm rooted in the Christian Tradition. I believe that there are many paths to the same place, and that is a belief that there is a higher power, a belief that we are connected as a people, that there are values that transcend race or culture, that move us forward, and that there's an obligation for all of us individually as well as collectively to take responsibility to make those values lived."
I like that too.
Even toilets teach me about the sacred!

To lift the tone of the photography in this post, I add a friends photo taken during our Sunday walk.

True wisdom...

I look forward to not having to preach when I retire in 18 months time. But one of the things I like about preaching is that in the process I grow and learn a heap more than ever my congregation learns. I share just a part of today's sermon. The reading was the great prayer from the book of Ephesians, chapter 3:14 -21. I have always loved this prayer but I grew to really appreciate one line in it. The writer says... "¹⁸I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, ¹⁹and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God."
Now I went on line and read a whole lot of commentaries on this passage. Some commentators gave me new insight into this very familiar passage. I had alway read that the "breadth and length and height and depth" was of "the love of God", but the sentence above is a very awkward translation. These commentators pointed out that in the greek these words could stand alone. That the writer is saying in effect, "I pray that you may have the power to comprehend (my interlinear greek New Testament says "apprehend") what is the breadth and length and height and depth," and then moves on to talk about knowing God's love. In a sense he was saying that he prays we might understand the breadth, length, height and depth of ... life? It hit me as being so authentic. How often do we make mistakes because we do not take into consideration the long term consequences of some action? How often do we limit life and cause disharmony because we do not think wider than ourselves and our interests? We frequently don't take into account the impacts on others, others' perspectives or other people's position in life. We are wrapped up in our own world and often exclude others... we do not comprehend the breadth of life. We often choose to live for superficial values and purposes, making decisions on shallow grounds because we do not perceive the deeper things of life. How many times do we fail to take the high road, and instead let people or situations drag us down to lower ways of behaving. For example I felt a man recently misrepresented me, I was stewing on it. A friend said to me, "Surely you have enough grace to rise above this." We often need to see the higher more noble paths in life. 


These commentators were saying that the writer was praying that we can fully perceive all the dimensions of life. I would be a much wiser and better person if I comprehended "the breadth and length and height and depth" of life.  It rang bells with me.

Lunch time post

It is Wednesday lunch time. I have come to work, but an influenza bug has hit me. I am mostly hiding in my office staying away from people. There are groups of people upstairs chatting in Space2B but some regulars are not there because of this influenza.

Big birthday today..

Today my wife qualifies for the "old age pension". Wow, where did the years go? I have bought and presented one present with some more to get. We have been invited out to my son's place for the evening meal. We have been told that I could join her on the pension, but at the moment I will continue in ministry.

Amazing communication age.

• We busy ourselves communicating. On Monday we went shopping in a new Supermarket in town. I was wandering waiting for my wife to finish, while gazing blankly at our fellow shoppers. Then it struck me that so many of them were busy on their phones. The woman waiting at the checkout counter while the clerk priced her shopping was busy texting. A couple had returned to their car and unloaded their shopping trolley, I could see both were texting. Many of the shoppers wandering the isles were texting.  Others you could see were checking emails on their phones. It just hit me that so many had their phone in their hands and were busy on it. 
• Communication is so fast! On Sunday a group of us were talking and one man who owned a restaurant in Invercargill (the southern most city of NZ)  told how he had a small fire in the restaurant. He was still in Dunedin, getting ready to drive down to Invercargill, and he was receiving phone calls from people who had seen news of the event on line! He was amazed at how fast the news spread. I know that at the fire service some years ago something happened to Dunedin fire fighters at an officers' course in Australia. The local chief officers heard about it via phone calls and were digesting the news, working out how best to respond.  It astounded me that within minutes fire fighters up and down the country had heard about it! Communication is so very quick and easy these days.
• It brings the distant near. A man from the United Arab Emirates read my blog site and contacted me via Skype. We talked and messaged many times backward and forward. He was young and a Muslim. I am old and a Christian. But we chatted backward and forward at various times until it became awkward because he would want to chat when I had other duties. His grandmother died and he talked to me about it asking my advice about what to do. It amazed me, this man I have never actually met, in a country different and far away, communicated with me at a relatively personal level. I write on this blog site. I have a widget that tells me where in the world people are reading pages on my blog site. Lately there seems to be regular readers in Russia! Now I would love to know why people in Russia would want to regularly read the rantings of a heretic minister in a little city in the South Island of New Zealand? It is mind boggling that words I pen here reach that far so quickly!  

A shower dome and a quote.

Today is my day off so we went to town and purchased a "shower dome." People tell me they are marvelous, keep the steam in the shower and even save on water heating? We will see. My wife has been suggesting it since we put our shower in. You buy this clear acrylic dome and you have to trim it to size. It recommends that it be installed by a "trained installer" because apparently the acrylic can crack and split and do all sorts of nasty things. I managed to trim it to suit our curved shower with my fancy "renovator" tool. I'm quite pleased with myself. We'll wait and see if it is as marvelous as they say. Who needs a "trained installer"?
While sneaking into my daughter's house to get my fancy power tool I found this quote. I quite like it.
"Will we march only to the music of time, or will we, risking criticism and abuse, march to the soul saving music of eternity?" - Martin Luther King (jnr)