Modern Scripture...

I had to share these great rewriten bible verses:

Psalm 141:3

Set a guard, O Lord, over my keyboard;
keep watch over the door of my send button!

James 1:19
Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to read, slow to reply all, slow to click send.

Proverbs 10:19
When blogging is abundant, transgression is not lacking, but whoever restrains his keyboard is prudent.

Proverbs 12:18
There is one whose comments on blogs are like sword thrusts, but the comments of the wise brings healing.

Proverbs 14:7
Don't follow the Twitter feed of a fool, for there you do not meet words of knowledge.

Proverbs 12:23
A prudent man conceals knowledge, but the Twitter feed of fools proclaims folly.

Via Josh Harris

3 Rabbis

I finished reading Scott Orson Card's Speaker for the Dead last night (actually early this morning).

It interests me how much insight some Sci-Fi and Fantasy writers have about religion.
This short piece (as a chapter introduction) is very interesting...

A great rabbi stands teaching in the marketplace. It happens that husband finds proof that morning of his wife's adultery, and a mob carries he to the marketplace to stone her to Death. (There is a familiar version of this story, but a friend of mine, a speaker for the dead, has told me of two other rabbis that faced the same situation. These are the ones I'm going to tell you.)

The rabbi walks forward and stands beside the woman. Out of respect for him the mob forbears, and waits with stones heavy in their hands. "Is there anyone here" he says to them, "who has not desired an other man's wife, and another woman's husband?"

They murmur and say, "We all know that desire. But rabbi, none of us has acted on it."

The rabbi says, "Then kneel down and give thanks to God that made you strong."
He takes the woman by the hand and leads her out of the market. Just before he lets her go, he whispers to her, "Tell the lord magistrate who saved his mistress. Then he'll know I am his loyal servant."

So the Woman Lives, because the community is too corupt to protect itself from disorder.

Another rabbi, another city. He goes to her and stops the mob, as in the other story, and says, "Which of you is without sin? Let him cast the first stone"
The people are abashed, and they forget their unity of purpose in the memory of there own individual sins. Someday, they think, I may be like this woman, and I'll hope for forgiveness and another chance. I should treat her the way I wish to be treated.

As they open their hands and let the stones fall to the ground, the rabbi picks up one of the fallen stones, lifts it high over the woman's head and throws it straight down with all his might. It crushes her skull and dashes her brains on to the cobblestones..

"Nor am I without sin", he says to the people. "But if we allow only perfect people to enforce the law, the law will soon be dead, and our city with it."

So the woman died because her community was too rigid to endure her deviance.

The famous version of the story is noteworthy because it is so startlingly rare in our experience. Most communities lurch between decay and rigor mortis, and when they veer too far, they die. Only one rabbi dared to expect of us such a perfect balance that we could preserve the law and still forgive the deviation. So of course, we killed him.

- Orson Scott Card

How's that for a thought leading in to easter? Have you ever looked at some thing Jesus said or did, and thought about what the alternatives might be?
Have you thought about what you might have done? Would you have had the guts to convict the sinners, but yet forgive the sin?

James

Information Diet

Homophily

I watched a very interesting video last night by Ethan Zuckerman who runs a site called 'Global Voices'.
HatTip: LibraryThing


He labeled the talk 'Building a Better Gatekeeper' and explores the idea that as we get more and more of an internet culture we can find ourselves 'flocking together', or in other words surrounding ourselves with like minded people, and information.


I know this isn't really something new, people having been doing it for years, I know for myself apart from work I almost never socialize with people who aren't from Christian circles. This is largely a result of my up bringing and beliefs, I like hanging out with Christians, I know how to relate to them, they know how to relate to me. I even pride myself on the diversity of my friends given the different streams of christianity they represent.

I'm probably not going to die because I don't talk to many homosexual gothic satanists, but perhaps my lack of diversity in my relationships could (has?) lead to me misunderstanding the world around me?

Likewise as a New Zealander I often (even if only in my own head) criticize America for it's inward focus yet how much to I know about Kenya or Uzbekistan (Does such a place actually exist?)

How often do we find that exactly what frustrates us in others is actually present in ourselves?

Chick Flicks

I remember watching Bride and Prejudice a while a go (Yes ladies I do watch chick flicks), I remember it because for the first time I understood Darcy's point of view from the original story. For those that don't know in the original story, Mr Darcy advises his friend Bingley not to marry a girl he has met in the country. He and She are of different classes, different cultures, different lives Marrying her would be a disaster. (not in those words but I think that's the general idea)

Naturally, As a modern westerner of the 21st century I thought 'What a biggot'!

However when I saw (in Bride and Prejudice) a young american man fall in love with a girl from india I thought all those same things. I could just see myself telling my friend "What do you think you are doing? Your culture is different, your religion is different, your family is different. Marrying this girl will not work!

Same story different place, but it brings it more alive to me...

Echo Chambers

I think that same kind of reaction was caused when I watch Ethan's talk, I was convicted of my own tenancy to return to the familar, to surround myself with an echo chamber, people and information that reinforces rather than challenges my thinking, my belief, my interests.

If you are anything like me, you will vaguely remember the first time you drank coffee, I don't remember where I was or why I tasted it BUT it tasted horrible.
Now I love little better than a good cup of espresso, what's changed? The coffee? No, it's me. What was once disgusting has become a treat.
Coffee may not be a good example given its addictive nature, and less that positive side effects but the idea stands:) Just like learning to eat vegetables when you were young. They can go from a chore to a joy.*

A Balanced Diet

Ethan talks about the Broccoli vs Chocolate Cake problem. Even people who really like broccoli would probably prefer a nice piece cake over a head of broccoli. We do the same kinds of things with our information needs, we read the 'chocolate cake' blogs, news stories, and friendships. Now there's nothing wrong with chocolate cake, but if we just eat cake we would probably find we are lacking a balanced diet.

Is it the same for our information/interests/relationships? Do we need to work on developing a more balanced diet? If we do make the effort, perhaps we'll find that we really enjoy the new things we learn and new ideas we encounter? Even if it takes a little while prehaps we can add a whole new joy to our lives? Too optimistic? I don't know.

Regardless what I have said, I strongly suggest you head over to http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/616 and have a listen. Perhaps you'll be convicted too.

---

* However, I am still trying to learn to enjoy raw tomato at age 24.

Sermon Quotes

Well, since it'd been such a very long time since I posted to my blog, I thought I'd better do something.

Went to Gateway Church in Hamilton this morning. The pastor (Don Barry) spoke about the tension between calvininsm and arminianism and why it is important for us to grapple with the paradox these theological positions create. Rather than discuss that debate, especially since I'm still rather struggling with it myself. I thought I'd share a couple of quotable Quotes from the message.

Idea's have consequences.
        - Don Barry

It's God's will that man chooses.
       - Jack Hayford

Pentecostalism is often guilty of having the fire without the fireplace.
       - Don Barry

If you don't like mystery, you probably won't enjoy the christan life.
        - G K Chesterton

There's theology everywhere.
        - Don Barry

Abide

You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. - John 15:3-5

Remain in me, and I will remain in you.

One of most outrageous beliefs in Christianity is the idea that God the most powerful, majestic, incredible being in all the world lives 'in' us. Corinthians 3:16 says this "Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?" That blows my mind! It is one of those paradoxical statements, how can x be in y but y be in x? Yet despite this Him living in me connection, I also need to be in Him. It is still up to me to remain or abide in Him. I read a commentary on John 15 today, and the main point the author made was that the focus of this passage is that we need to abide in him, the passage is about abiding, not about future judgement, or trying glean some magical formula out of connections with the world of viticulture. Jesus point is clear. Live your life for me, and I'll be part of your life. To borrow some words from Bono, "Stop asking God to bless what you’re doing. Get involved in what God is doing".

Abide in Him, and He will abide in you. Sounds like a good deal to me, even if it does involve a little bit of pruning :)

The Grapes

Following on from yesterday with the second verse in John 15, Jesus begins to explain what the father does as the 'gardener' or as the ESV puts it 'the vinedresser'.

He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be more fruitful.

The first part of this verse scares me, would God really cut people off from the vine? Just for failing to bear fruit?
While this should scare us a little, we need to put it in context. It seems likely that this cutting off would refer to the judgment day, when God would say "This one was never part of the vine" ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers.’ Surely if one has remained in God, he would have at least born some fruit!

When we are connected to the vine, we WILL bear fruit. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,gentleness and self–control. Against such things there is no law. Think of it this way the 'fruit' or result of being in the Spirit (or in the vine) is Love, Joy, Peace etc. When we are living in the Spirit, the fruit will come, Our character has to change. Which begs the question, in your life do you see those fruit? What does that say about how connected you are to the vine?

The second half of the verse makes a very important point, just because we have had some fruit doesn't mean we can sit back and relax till the rapture. Jesus tells us that we will be pruned. I can't imagine that being pruned is particularly comfortable. It requires us to let go of things that we want to hold on to. For example, I may be being pruned at this very moment. Right now I'd really rather be in bed going to sleep that writing this, but I know that God has called me to spend more time with His word, struggling to understand it, thinking on it, writing about it. I don't have all the answers or all the right things to say, I'll probably one day look back on my thoughts here an laugh, Yet I'm doing my best to follow my God.

So how do we get connected?

Rico has made some good comments on what it means to be "Truly Connected to the True Vine" have a read of those, but as usual I have some thoughts of my own :)

Firstly we need to remember that maintaining a connection takes effort. Think about some of the people you used to be friends with, perhaps they moved to a different city? You started going to a different church? No longer see them at Uni?
You may have noticed that if you want to maintain relationships with people you have to put in some effort. You have to remember to think of that person, make time for them, put them before other less important things. Easier said than done (for me at least)

It is the same with our relationship with Jesus, many times we neglect him, forget about him, choose other much less important things over him. This is not good enough.

Secondly, We need to stand strong. As a vine branch if I don't hold tight and build a strong connection with the vine, and hold on to the truth around me at the first storm my connection would be severed. Too many people drop their connection to the vine simply because the feel like it would be easier to let go.

Well I think that's me for today, I'm going to keep thinking about how to strengthen my connection to the Vine. Let's get practical what are some things we can do to cultivate this connection?
Blogging all this for me is one.
What else can you think of?

The Vine

A friend of mine has challenged me to join in him in blogging his bible studies.
I'm taking him up on his challenge, starting, as he suggested with John 15.

John 15:1
"I am the true vine, and my father is the gardener."

The first thing that jumps out at me in this verse are the words 'I Am'. They make me think back to Moses and the burning bush where Moses asks God 'Who should I say has sent me'? To which God replies "Tell them 'I AM' has sent you". Now I'm sure that the two words 'I am' were spoken regularly in Jesus' day^[1], as they are now, but I does give us a reminder of Christ's deity. John's gospel picks up on this "I Am" theme by including 7 different times when Jesus says 'I Am'.
1. “I am the bread of life” (6:35)
2. “I am the light of the world” (8:12; 9:5)
3. “I am the door” (10:7, 9)
4. “I am the good shepherd” (10:11)
5. “I am the resurrection and the life” (11:25)
6. “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (14:6)
7. “I am the true vine” (15:1)
^[2]

Just as the words 'I am' were significant in that they signify Jesus deity, the vine is also suggestive. Throughout the old testament, prophets used the image of a vine to describe Israel, the chosen people of God. By saying He is the 'True' vine Jesus is really saying that only those in him are truly children of God. You are not a child of God by growing your own vine, nor by being a branch of the right pedigree, only by being connected as a branch of Jesus, the True vine do we really become Sons or Daughter of God.

Well that's all I've got time to write for now, but will write again tomorrow. Please feel free to comment on what I've written here, I'd love to discuss it with you all. Especially in how we can get truly connected with the 'True Vine'...

James
[1] - I have heard that the Greek for this is a emphatic (or forceful/notable) construction, suggesting that perhaps Jesus is saying this in a more meaningful that I might say "I am 23 years old"
[2] - Dunnett, W. M. 2001. Exploring the New Testament. Originally published: New Testament survey. Wheaton, Ill. : Evangelical Teacher Training Association, c1963, in series: Broadening your biblical horizons. Crossway Books: Wheaton, Ill.