Archive for June, 2007
I’m feeling a little bit tired right now. Perhaps not physically but emotionally. Handling more than 20 kids ranging from 2 years old to 10 years old even with 4 adults requires much.
Was struck the other day after reading about our present day preoccupation with “meaning” (usually for those who don’t have to think about their next meal) and pushed to reconsider a more biblical word “promise”.
Just had a chat with 2 friends who are having a more leisurely paced life overseas (from my perception), I wonder why is it we often feel so overwhelmed in our Malaysian context. Is it the national context with it’s uncertainties? is it the confusion we wrestled with faced with the immense changes in this globalized world? could it be our inner selves are too empty and dry from resources needed to handle the amount of stuff bombarded to us? Are we just busybodies?
I loved some little moments of grace today. Nice to see a son show his mummy the sandwiches he made. Another boy showed me his origami skills. A few created their own game while walking together inside a hoola-hoop. Another bunch enjoyed drawing … and lots of drawing.
Hopefully after a few more random thoughts my hearts will be more rested. 
a little conversation on cultural identity made me think of the place of spiritual formation in the development of that identity. Or it could be seen the other way round, how does cultural identity impact our spiritual formation? There’s a link in there somewhere.
it’s suppose to be a little more quiet now. The kids are sleeping. May Chin is sleeping. But there’s a party downstairs near the pool … and while the music is not blasting in my ears. It’s a little irritating 
I notice some people tend to keep on demanding and asking for stuff before even a word of appreciation. Imagine if we could stop at the appreciation part. Sure, there will be times of making requests known. But words of thanks are still rare. Maybe that’s why when I hear appreciative words spoken it comes across pretty loud.
Glad to see people blessed by the parenting seminar today. There’s many “propaganda” we get from advertising and popular myths where from our cultural background or the don’t wanna lose out culture of today. And when it comes to kids we are vulnerable to swallow a lot that’s offered to us as advice or promises. It’s good to re-examine them honestly and especially in the light of good Christian teaching and perspectives.
Of course, even some of our long held Christians understandings on parenting may need to be re-looked as well. The commitment towards discerning what is crucial and what is peripheral needs to be applauded. And it’s good to beware of dogmatism in secondary matters. And yet, this freedom does mean we need to do some hard work of thinking clearly together and encouraging each other forward.
the word “grace” crops up again … the other word “growth” is not far behind …
Timely post for me as I’m soaking in the blessings from reading Bonhoeffer, thanks to Faith and Theology and Ray Anderson for highlighting Bonhoeffer again..
A guest-post by Ray Anderson, Fuller Theological Seminary
1. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a Christian theologian. Rather, one should say that he became a Christian 
theologian. Eberhard Bethge, his former student and biographer, notes the year 1933 as a “transition from theologian to Christian.” In 1936 Dietrich wrote to a girlfriend and confessed: “I plunged into work in a very unchristian way.… [T]hen something happened, something that has changed and transformed my life to the present day. For the first time I discovered the Bible…. I had often preached. I had seen a great deal of the church, spoken and preached about it, but I had not yet become a Christian” (Bethge 2000, 203-5). By his own admission, his two most scholarly writings, Sanctorum Communio (1927) and Act and Being (1930), were written by a theologian who was not yet a Christian. I take the word “Christian” here to mean “disciple” – one who does not merely believe in Christ, but experiences Christ.
2. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a lonely theologian. Though he had a twin sister, was home-schooled by his mother, and was raised in a highly interactive social environment, his decision to become a theologian was met with curiosity and even some scorn. He was caught between his mother’s piety and his father’s open contempt for religion. Kenneth Morris says that in making his decision to become an academic theologian his “father pitied him and told him so” (1986, 75). For all his analysis of the social aspect of the self, Dietrich grew increasingly isolated in the midst of his activity. “With some exaggeration it might be said that because he was lonely he became a theologian, and because he became a theologian he was lonely” (Bethge 2000, 37). When a theologian writes (in Discipleship, 87), “Whenever Christ calls us, his call leads to death” (Jeder Ruf Christi fährt in den Tod), we know that the door to life has become so narrow that only one can pass through at a time. Perhaps Bonhoeffer had already read the bleak observation of the 19th-century German underground theologian, G. J. Hamann: “In a world of fugitives / One who moves in the opposite direction / Will appear to run away.”
3. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a conflicted theologian. While others perceived in Dietrich self-assurance and even a bit 
of arrogance, he often experienced self-contempt and even periods of depression in his own soul, or what Bethge, who perhaps knew him best, called accidie or tristitia. These periods often followed times when he had been particularly effective in preaching, teaching or leading others. However, as Bethge recalls, after his arrest and imprisonment in 1943, he no longer experienced these times, as he was gripped by a sense of duty. In spite of enforced inaction, he had finally achieved the concrete discipleship that he longed for (Bethge 2000, 506, 833).
4. Bonhoeffer was a worldly theologian. While the “worldliness of Christianity” became a dominant theme in his Letters from Prison, underlying this perspective was his conviction that the God who became human in Jesus Christ abolished the distinction between religion and the world. In his earliest writing he stated that religion is dispensable, God is not. “Not religion, but revelation, not a religious community, but the church: that is what the reality of Jesus Christ means” (Communio 1963, 112). Later, having witnessed the utter failure of the church as a religious institution to act on behalf of the oppressed Jews, he followed Christ out of the church into the world. Only those who live fully in the world have a claim to follow Christ, he wrote from prison. The God of religion whom we seek to call into the world on our behalf, has already entered the world in the form of a suffering God. “The God who lets us live in the world without the working hypothesis of God is the God before whom we stand continually. Before God and with God we live without God” (Letters, 360). The “worldliness” of Christianity is not our invention, but our calling. The ambiguity of this situation, he asserted, is precisely what the incarnation created for us. It is ambiguity that creates prophets.
5. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a prophetic theologian. He was one of the first to recognize and point out the disastrous consequences of Hitler’s campaign against the Jews. In June 1933, when the church 
struggle erupted over the National Bishop (Ludwig Müller) and the opposing General Superintendents were suspended, Bonhoeffer urged an interdict upon all pastoral services (baptisms, weddings, funerals, etc.) as a way of confronting the German Christians with their unholy alliance with Hitler. But he could not arouse sympathy for this drastic action. In fact, Barth advised against this radical proposal, suggesting that “we should let the facts speak for themselves.” In September, following the Brown Synod, Bonhoeffer urged the formation of a new Free Church and even wrote to Barth requesting his support. But here again Bonhoeffer was disappointed at Barth’s counsel to wait until the present leaders “discredited themselves” (Bethge 2000, 292). It was in April 1933 in his article on “the Church and the Jewish Question” that he suggested that the only way to act responsibly would be by “throwing a spoke in the wheel” of the national government. Prophets often die by their own words; theologians seldom do.
6. Bonhoeffer was a postmodern theologian. Postmodern ethics was anticipated by Dietrich Bonhoeffer when he turned the “modern” basis for ethics (as advocated by Kant) on its head. He wrote: “In the sphere of Christian ethics it is not what ought to be that effects what is, but what is that effects what ought to be” (Communio 1963, 146). The problem of Christian ethics, said Bonhoeffer, is the same as the problem of Christian dogmatics, the realization of the reality of revelation in and among God’s creatures in the form of concreteness, immediacy, and obedience. In a world where good and evil are mixed, and where ambiguity conceals the divine commandment, the Christian’s ethical responsibility is to follow and obey Christ, not merely to adhere to abstract ethical principles. There is no place for “self justification” by virtue of reliance on predetermined principles for action. “Principles are only tools in God’s hands, soon to be thrown away as unserviceable” (Ethics 1995, 71).
7. Bonhoeffer was a post-denominational theologian. What he viewed as the demise of the church was its claim to a special place as a religious institution and its failure to exist in solidarity with the world in obedience to Christ. His participation in ecumenical conversations and dialogue marked a blurring of denominational boundaries and the recognition of authentic Christian existence in mutual friendship, as expressed in his final words 
sent to Bishop Bell in England from his death cell: “for me it is the end but also the beginning – with him I believe in the principle of our universal Christian brotherhood which rises above all national interests and that our victory is certain – tell him too that I have never forgotten his words at our last meeting.” Writing from prison, his view of the church’s future was incarnational and ethical in a truly worldly sense. “The church is the church only when it exists for others. To make a start, it should give always all its property to those in need…. The church must share in the most secular problems of ordinary human life, not dominating, but helping and serving” (Letters, 382). Denominations are religious institutions at the edge of the world; the church is an incarnational presence in the midst of the world.
8. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a practical theologian. Practical theology deals with God’s self-revelation and activity through the life and ministry of human beings. From the early Barth, Bonhoeffer learned that the act of God reveals the being of God. His second dissertation, Act and Being (1930), attempted to bring Barth’s concept of “pure act” into the historical realm through Heidegger. But Bonhoeffer was never a disciple of Barth. True, Barth led him away from idealism into critical realism with regard to divine revelation, but God’s life and activity through the human person Jesus Christ became for Bonhoeffer the praxis of revelation and thus the form of practical theology. His Christology was orthodox so far as Christ is the form of God in the world, but practical so far as the Christian is the form of Christ in the world. Because the former was merely a dogmatic assumption, his own theological praxis was concerned with action prior to reflection – a statement that scandalized his students.
9. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a maverick theologian. John Maverick was a 19th-century Texas rancher and legislator who received a herd of cattle in payment of a bill and turned them loose on the range without a brand. When one of them turned up without a brand, it was assumed to be one of Maverick’s. Many have tried to mark Dietrich with their own brand, to no avail! He slipped away from the death of God theologians when they realized that the same man who wrote from prison about living in a world without God was the one who invited a Russian atheist fellow prisoner to participate in a final communion service just before being executed. Pacifists put a claim on him but felt betrayed by his admission that he would kill Hitler himself if the lot fell to him as a member of the conspiracy. Evangelicals like his talk about Jesus but wish Bonhoeffer had been more concerned about his unsaved relatives and friends. Social activists applaud him for his concern for the oppressed but are embarrassed by his orthodox Christology. Even in death, as in life, he remained unbranded.
10. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a martyred theologian. There is disagreement over this, of course. His complicity in the conspiracy thrust him directly into political resistance. In the minds of many traditional Lutherans, this excluded him from being a Christian martyr. In a sermon preached in 1932 he had this to say about martyrs: “the blood of martyrs might once again be demanded, but this blood, if we really have the courage and loyalty to shed it, will not be innocent, shining like that of the first witnesses for the faith. On our blood lies heavy guilt, the guilt of the unprofitable servant who is cast into outer darkness” (Bethge 1975, 155). By his own definition, he was a martyr. He never claimed justification for his actions, other than to assume guilt as a necessary component of responsible action. Whether it was true or not, he thought that his actions, to the very end, were those of a Christian disciple in obedience to Christ. Martyrs live for what they confess to be true, and die for it. Only those who confess the same truth will call a person a martyr.
There are so many layers and perspectives we can explore on a given subject, it’s easy to get lost and lose sight on what is REALLY at stake.
Who we hang out with does make a difference! One of the few Chinese sayings that has stuck in my mind is the one which tell us when you are near to the red ink you would become “red”, and if you are near to black ink you’d turn “black”.
Having spent much time in a “church” context I’m well aware how we can turn into an in-house club. But, I saw the same signs during my season with the Toastmasters, and I see it amongst different vocations. It’s evident in NGO settings and social activism. Seems to me talking amongst ourselves is more of a human phenomena than just confined to church.
There are those who think leaving the corporate world and working in a church ministry is easier and less stress. They will be disappointed. There are those who assume the action is not in the church but in the NGOs, soon they discover there’s the normal institutional problems that sucks our energy too. There are those who think migrating to another country they’d find happiness, I was surprised to hear of someone who had to return back to Malaysia after less than a year. There are those who uncritically pride ourselves as communal and caring for the family compared to people in Europe, a few Germans proved me wrong.
It’s encouraging before we entered into the business part of our meeting where follow-up and decisions needed to be made, the 4 of us spend a good deal of time praying for people in need and acknowledging God’s presence and work in our calling as leaders.
Gareth waited for me last night.
Our worlds and the world is changing fast and furiously. I feel forces pulling us apart internally and externally. Looks like more and more polarization is on the way. Seemingly contractions are springing up all over the place. I heard the word “confusion” again last night.
The need to have a center which can deal with paradoxes, mystery, uncertainties and doubts is a must. Before we plunge into the abyss of losing ourselves.
I genuinely think being an authentic Christ-follower is not popular today. Many are battling for the throne of our hearts. Jesus has no advantage … but he’s still calling.
“I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please, not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine. I don’t want enough of him to make me love a black man or pick beets with a migrant. I want ecstasy, not transformation; I want warmth of the womb, not a new birth. I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack. I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please.”
- Wilbur Rees, Leadership, Vol. 4, No. 1, I(via inward/outward)
The longer I walk this journey with Jesus here on earth … the more I realize this is a long road to freedom from loads of “stuff” …
Intergral Life, Integral Teacher – interview with Parker Palmer
Change the word “Teacher” to “Pastor” and “Education” to “Church” … it speaks to me.
“I am a teacher at heart, and I am not naturally drawn to political activism. But I’ve found that there is no essential conflict between loving to teach and working to reform education. An authentic movement is not a play for power – it is teaching and learning writ large. Now the world becomes our classroom, and the potential to teach and learn is found everywhere. We need only be in the world as our true selves, with open hearts and minds.”
Blogging in the name of the Lord: Ben Myers
Read this slowly:
“…there can be a danger that we forget, in our discussions, that we’re talking to real people — it’s amazing how nasty some people can be online, even though they’d be polite and friendly if you met them face-to-face. So I guess the important thing is to remember that an online conversation is still a conversation — it’s a discussion between friends.”
Brian McLaren: The Need for a New Rhetoric
I confess I usually don’t read the comments unless it’s really engaging and helpful.
Mater Ecclesia: An Ecclesiology for the 21st Century
I don’t think I will be going back to Rome anytime soon but I have also been thinking about “Mother Church” lately.
“… while keeping in mind the manifold ways in which the Church expresses itself, I believe that the recovery of the classical formulation of Church as Mater Ecclesia will have enormous theological importance for the 21st century. The heart of the importance lies in four ways in which we understand the role of motherhood, namely, childbearing, teaching, protecting and correcting.”
A Malaysian’s contemporary view: Law of Apostasy and Freedom of Religion in Malaysia’
It’s not over yet … other voices emerge.
The Best Blogs for Church Leaders to Read
The 5 criteria is relevant:
“1. They help me improve my church leadership.
2. They write thoughtfully. Emotion and rants are great but they should take into account the different sides of an issue. You shouldn’t be mean-angry unless serious injustice is taking place.
3. They keep their writing about personal things to 20% or less. I don’t want to read about what they had for breakfast or see their vacation photos. But personal reflection on the material is great!
4. Often they are proven writers with published books.
5. These blogs have not been eliminated from my blogroll for some other reason. Admittedly, I often just skim post titles of these blogs and don’t read all that they write.
6. The design of the blog is sufficiently attractive. “
“During the time of the Third Reich church attendance was being frowned upon by the National Socialist regime, and thus became a political act.”
- Footnote 19 on page 210 of Discipleship(Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works Vol 4)
Reading Bonhoeffer sends chills up my spine! While trying to discipline myself to finish a book for a change (rather than just scanning), I was surprised how even a footnote grabbed me.
“When I first became a Christian, about fourteen years ago, I thought that I could do it on my own, by retiring to my rooms and reading theology, and wouldn’t go to the churches and Gospel Halls; I disliked very much their hymns which I considered to be fifth-rate poems set to sixth-rate music. But as I went on I saw the merit of it. I came up against different people of quite different outlooks and different education, and then gradually my conceit just began peeling off. I realized that the hymns (which were just sixth-rate music) were, nevertheless, being sung with devotion and benefit by an old saint in elastic-side boots in the opposite pew, and then you realize that you aren’t fit to clean those boots. It gets you out of your solitary conceit.”
- C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy (via inward/outward)
Old paragraphs above with fresh relevance for today. C.S Lewis is always delightful in the way he crafts his timely insights which humbles as well as matures the reader.
Before we continue with the next session Hearing God’s Voice, let’s re-look at the people who will be and should be doing the listening
“Our special status as bearer’s of God’s image brings special responsibilities. In particular, we are called to use our gifts and talents in the service of God, in helping others, and in caring for the natural world. We are here to play a positive role in the created order, but we have not always performed very well.” (p. 39)
Gareth and I walked out of the lift one day. We saw some trash on the floor. So, the temptation was to walk pass it (assuming the cleaners would clean it up anyway.) But then we stopped, and then I turned back and said, “Gareth, let’s pick that up and throw it into the dustbin shall we?”
I was tempted to give my 5 year old son Al Gore-Inconvenient-truth speech but then again. Let’s do what needs to be done first and talk later. It’s more meaningful that way. So, this became raw material for our conversation about taking care of the world starting with not simply throwing trash all over the place and picking it up rubbish on the floor.
“… the image of God (or imago Dei) comes from the Eastern Orthodox tradition, which links the image of God freedom and rationality: Like God, human beings can think and decide and act. We are not mechanically determined machines, not are we driven by instinct alone. We are people, and as such, we possess the freedom and the responsibility to determine who we will be.” (p.40)
Even though our thinking might be skewed, our deciding wrong, and we act stupidly …we still bear the consequences of our thinking, deciding and acting. And the accumulation of the results of these will form who we will be. So, every baby step matters.
I’ll be continuing to facilitate our sessions together based on Gracious Christianity. “Hearing God’s voice” will be coming up next Feel free to join me in the conversation.
When: June 27, 2007 Wednesday 8pm
Where: Bangsar Lutheran Church Premises
What:
“God is speaking all the time, but we are often too preoccupied to notice. God doesn’t shout to get our attention, but typically speaks softly and quietly. God’s voice invariably comes to us as a call, luring us deeper into life and deeper into the love God feels for the whole world. God can speak through nature and human experience, but the clearest way God has ever spoken to the world is through a person: Jesus of Nazareth, who Christians believe was both fully human and fully divine. A very important way we hear God’s voice today is through prayer, but sometimes God can seem silent even when we are trying to listen. That silence reminds us to uphold others when God seems silent to them.
Questions Addressed:
* How does God speak to us?
* What does it mean to feel called by God?
* What has God communicated to us through Jesus?
* What is prayer?”
“… when i’ve been in a church environment in which i’ve not agreed with the teaching it was fun to critique my thoughts and challenge myself as to whether i was just being disagreeable and what i really thought. Having been in a teaching environment for the last yr where i have found myself not only agreeing with much that is taught but finding that actually leads to me wanting to change, to discovering new ways of seeing God, myself, the world and doing something different in response.
…I’ve not really noticed before as to how helpful a regular rhythm it is to go to church. Church for me before has always been about experience – to learn something or to encounter God, to be prayed for, to socialise etc. These are all good things but most helpful is the space i have at least once a week in my otherwise me dominated routine to go and do something that doesn’t immediately give me a buzz. To have space and time to spend orientating my life around God is a precious gift and to do that in a communal setting and here about how God is doing things in the lives of others and what others are doing for God just strengthens that space.
… i’ve not quite realsied how serving others is a spiritual practice which means i’m more likely to be generous/kind/thoughtful/ in moments outside of church. What i’ve found most encouraging is connecting how the things i do help other people, i guess its not twigged before, service was a duty and now it feels more like a pleasure.
… Being able to have church which acts as a place to gather, share, practice, learn, together aids missionary life. Without somewhere to gather and do life together i seriously believe the mission of God’s people starts to flag. Church is not just about sunday, it’s one part of the life of the church but that life is helped by gathering in small and large groups to share God’s story with each other and support and encourage each other to live out a christian life.”
- Paul Mayers, Rediscovering my churchianity – a recant
What a wonderful question: “So what do you find helpful/encouraging about church?“