Disaster in Myanmar

This week I am teaching a course on spiritual renewal at the Overseas Ministries Study Center in New Haven CT.  Five of the participants are from Myanmar which has brought the horrors of the devastation of the cyclone in Myanmar very close to me.  Most of these brothers are still unable to contact their families.  Those that have already know of the deaths of family friends, loved ones and colleagues.  Whole villages in which they worked have been swept away.  Fellow church workers have been killed.  One participant has lost 5 of his 6 pastoral colleagues.  See before and after aerial photos here

More images from New York Times

This kind of devastation is unimaginable for us.  There are already 22,000 confirmed dead and many think the death toll could rise to 100,000.  For many of us the closest we can come to imagine this is the devastation after Hurricane Katrina or after the tsunami of 2004.  The pain and suffering that people are and will continue to endure is unimaginable to us.  All we can do is pray and respond with relief goods and support.  But what we can do seems so small in the wake of such devastation.

Why does God allow events like this that sweep away Christians and non Christians alike.  I don’t know The verse I continually return to is Lamentations 3: 31 - 33

For men are not cast off by the Lord forever.

Though he brings grief, he will show compassion,so great is his unfailing love.

For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men.

My pray is that God’s love and compassion will be poured out on the nation of Myanmar today and throughout the coming months and that out of this terrible pain and suffering God may bring hope and wholeness.

Women in Leadership

My friend Eugene Cho has just published an excellent post on Women in Leadership which expresses not only his views but also those of the Covenant church. First let me say how much I appreciate Eugene for speaking out like this. Men in leadership are so often silent on these issues. Second let me express a big amen to all that Eugene has said. Like most women in leadership I have struggled with the attitude of many in the church towards women to whom God has given this type of gift. We have so often been made to feel like second class citizens who are not really doing what God has called us to. Somehow the freedoms of Christ are more liberating for men than for women. I know that I have written about this before but it doesn’t hurt to repeat myself here.

One person who really helped me understand this issue was British theologian Elaine Storkey. I remember meeting her in England several years ago when she pointed out that Jesus miracles always embraced men and women. He raised both Lazarus and Jairus’s daughter from the dead. He healed the unclean male leper and the unclean woman with an issue of blood. He equated the kingdom of God with a man finding a pearl in a field and a woman finding a coin in a house. And after his resurrection he revealed himself to men and women alike. Mary’s encounter with the risen Christ was just as important as Peter’s.

So often even women read the gospels through male eyes. All of us know that Peter proclaimed “You are the Christ.” Few of us remember that Martha made the same profound theological statement. In fact according to Elaine Storkey, the story of Mary and Martha is completely misconstrued. In the Jewish culture where it was not unusual for a man to pray “Thank God I was not born a woman”, women were thought to be unable to understand theological concepts - witness the movie Yentl and the extreme measures she uses to learn theology. In the story of Mary and Martha Jesus is basically saying - “Mary (and Martha too) has as much right to sit and learn theological truth from me as the men do.” The story does not recount whether Mary and Martha continued to sit at Jesus feet but maybe Martha’s proclamation of Jesus as the Christ is meant to imply that she did.

Recognizing that Jesus liberated women in the same way that he liberated men was extremely freeing for me. It has helped me to realize that any time one human being sees another as inferior - as less human - they deny part of the message of Christ and the freedom that Christ offers to us all through his death on the cross.

Upcoming Celtic Events

I just realized that it is probably time that I updated my event links. We will be holding another Celtic workshop at the Mustard Seed House June 7th and our annual Celtic Prayer retreat (this will be our 17th) on Camano Island August 9-11. In fact we have a busy season coming up beginning with The New Conspirators After Party May 17th. July 8-10 Tom & I will be in Winnipeg Manitoba for the Mennonite Church USA and Canada Summit

It is in the Fall that travels really pick up - Tom will be in Britain in September & we will both be in Holland in October as well as several trips within the USA. If you would be interested in piggybacking another event off one of these trips please let us know.

Talk about the need to establish good and sustainable rhythms. One of the things I find really helps when I am travelling like this is to take a book of morning and evening prayers. After I have checked in at the airport I like to sit in a quiet place for a few minutes to pray and I find that with all the distraction of a busy airport that having set prayers to pray always rests and refreshes my soul.

Pentecost & Ascension Day

Today is Ascension Day - the day on which we commemorate Jesus ascension into heaven where he now sits at the right hand of God. For me this day is closely associated with Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit which we celebrate next week. Here is a liturgy I wrote recently that focuses on this, though I must confess most of the credit must go to our St Alban’s rector John Leech whose sermon last week I have drawn on heavily.

God whose glory fills our world

God whose life is closer than breath

God whose love is stronger than death

God, this God of life and love

Has sent an advocate to save us

Jesus Christ the righteous, now at the right hand of God

Not to condemn but to bring full life

Not to accuse but to redeem

Not to reject but to draw close

God, this God of life and love

Has sent an advocate to save us

Jesus Christ the righteous, now at the right hand of God

God who hears the cry of our seeking souls

God who sees the pain of our suffering bodies

God who feels the loss of our grieving spirits

God, this God of life and love

Has sent an advocate to be with us forever

The Spirit of truth abides with us eternally

Before us to teach and lead,

Within us to comfort and heal,

Around us to shield and protect,

God, this God of life and love

Has sent an advocate to be with us forever

The Spirit of truth abides with us eternally

Art to Change the World

Well I missed Earth Day, but it is never too late to enter into the spirit of going green. Here are some powerful images by Chris Jordan that relate to the statistics of consumption & help us to recognize the extent of the problem.

This series looks at contemporary American culture through the austere lens of statistics. Each image portrays a specific quantity of something: fifteen million sheets of office paper (five minutes of paper use); 106,000 aluminum cans (thirty seconds of can consumption) and so on. My hope is that images representing these quantities might have a different effect than the raw numbers alone, such as we find daily in articles and books. Statistics can feel abstract and anesthetizing, making it difficult to connect with and make meaning of 3.6 million SUV sales in one year, for example, or 2.3 million Americans in prison, or 410,000 paper cups used every fifteen minutes. This project visually examines these vast and bizarre measures of our society, in large intricately detailed prints assembled from thousands of smaller photographs. The underlying desire is to emphasize the role of the individual in a society that is increasingly enormous, incomprehensible, and overwhelming.

The series begins with an image of 1 million plastic cups - the number used on US airlines every 6 hours.

View the rest of the series here, and thanks to Anneke Geel for making me aware of this

Pentecost

A number of people have asked me about the pentecost icon I used in a previous post. It is a contemporary Coptic icon. The best collection of pentecost art I have found is at Biblical-Art.com Here are some of my favourites.

Pentecost - soichi

Pentecost - Giotti

Mexican icon

Mildorfer - pentecost

Back From Down Under

Tom & I arrived back from Australia on Saturday. At least my body is back but for some reason I still feel as though my mind is only halfway across the Pacific. It is great to return to spring time in the Pacific Northwest. The daffodils are still out and the tulips and flowering trees are bursting into bloom. I must confess however that I am a little overwhelmed by the 80 tomato plants that are rapidly taking over my front porch. Wish i could send some to my friends scattered around the world.

We had a great trip (more of that later when the cotton wool gets out of my brain) and much has happened while we were away. The Other Journal published my article on Why We Live In Community. Here is a brief exerpt.

At the core of our small Mustard Seed House community and of its parent organization Mustard Seed Associates, is our belief in this wild hope of the resurrection and our vision of God’s eternal world as a place in which all of creation is restored and made whole. Through the redemptive work of Christ, one day together with sisters and brothers of every culture, from every age we believe we will be made whole and live together in the love, joy, and mutual concern for God’s original creation. Read the entire article

I also have an article published in the British magazine The Bible in Transmission. This one is entitled Living Into God’s Shalom World

The spiritual rhythms we need for healthy living have been severely disrupted and we haven’t even noticed: ‘Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work, driving through traffic in a car you are still paying for, in order to get to the job that you need so you can pay for the clothes, car and the house that you leave empty all day in order to afford to live in it.’ Read the entire article

It looks as though someone was busy while I was gone.

Last Day In Australia

Today is our last day in Australia. Tom is finishing off a visit to Perth and I am in Sydney with my family. Tom was interviewed on Perth radio a couple of days ago. You can listen to the interview here

I am sitting with my family watching the Anzac Day Parade - the Australian equivalent of Memorial Day. The day particularly commemorates the landing at Gallipoli on April 26th 1915. The highlight will be the dawn ceremony later today (at least here in Australia) at Gallipoli Bay in Turkey where 250,000 Australian and New Zealand troops were killed or wounded during the First World War. Turkey lost 87,00 men. The emphasis is on reconciliation and understanding - very moving. This has become a place of pilgrimage for many young Australians - a recognition of the need for peace not war. Here are some photos from the 2005 ceremony commemorating 90 years since the troops landed

New Zealand and Australian Flags

After the drought

I am sitting in Sydney at my brother’s place with the rain falling outside.  Tom & I have just returned from a wonderful week in Melbourne where we  were able to catch up on old friends and make some new ones as well.

I loved the Forge festival with Andrew Jones (Tall Skinny Kiwi), Sally Morgenthaler, Mike Frost, Ray Simpson and others where 400 plus people gathered with lots of creative energy & discussion.  We had a particularly good discussion on co-housing.  There are many here in Australia that are looking for alternatives to the single family detached home.  (more on this later).

We have beed kept moving from meetings with the Evangelical Alliance to World Vision as well as catching up on friends Ev & gary Heard & Rob & Lois Kilpatrick.  We also visited one of the only 2 Baptist monasteries in the world - yes Baptist - complete with robes, incense and icons.  It was a very rich experience - wonderful hospitality and conversation that nourished our souls.

Wednesday we drove back to Sydney through a dry but beautiful Australia.  Scary to see the continuing results of 10 years of drought and wonder about the future of our plant in light of such problems.  Tom flies to Perth next Tuesday but I will be staying in Sydney to spend time with my family.   Wonderful to be back with them after 2 years away.  One of the struggles for all of us in this highly mobile society is how to stay connected to those we love.  Home is where the heart is they say but my heart is spread around the world

Reconnecting

Yesterday we drove from Sydney to Melbourne, a drive I have not done for 30 years.  There is something very special about reconnecting to one’s roots and I am feeling quite energized as a result.  The beauty of sunset skies behind a hill studded with snow gums is breathtaking.  More than anything I am enjoying the birds - galahs, cockatoos and lorikeets are everywhere.

Today we start our busy time in Melbourne - a meeting with the Evangelical Alliance this morning and then on to Forge this evening.  We are looking forward to seeing old friends and making new ones.