Gran Torino

Anne and I went to a free screening of Clint Eastwood's latest movie Gran Torino yesterday. (It was free in that my sister and her partner had given us two movie passes!) What a movie!

Clint Eastwood is at his snarly best trying to live in his changed neighbourhood after the death of his wife but surrounded by people of other nationalities and small-time gangs.

Next door to him is a family of Hmong immigrants (from the Vietnam, Laos, Thailand area). Slowly these people break through his defences to the point where he acts, in a stunningly selfless act of redemption, to rid them of an element who will never allow them any freedom. The redemption theme is multifaceted in this movie. Eastwood's character, Walt Kowalski finds a way towards healing the scars from his Korean War experience, he begins to find his faith thanks to the persistence of the local Catholic priest who proves to be more than you might expect, and his neighbours who he considers his enemies prove to be closer than his family. The climatic redemptive act is for you to find out, but for me, it has the scent of the gospel all through it.

Eastwood at 78 is reported to have said that this will be his last role in front of the camera - I hope not, but maybe this movie is the redemption of Dirty Harry. Maybe it is also indicating a way forward for his own people as they look upon those they consider their enemies.

The Good Life

Do you recall the Story of Stuff that I posted on my blog last year?
The same outfit have just posted a 3 minute reflection on youtube called The Good Life
I encourage you to take a few moments to watch it. Click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McvCJley78A

'no line on the horizon' pre-review

Neil McCormick - very long-time U2 friend, writer of 'U2 by U2' and "I was Bono's Doppelganger' and rock writer for The Telegraph has penned a very good pre-review of the new U2 album due for release in 10 days (I'm counting)... here's an excerpt...

"...what a place for a band to be, in orbit around their own myth, making music that bounces off the inside of a listeners skull, charged with ideas and emotions, groovy enough to want to dance to, melodic enough to make you sing along, soulful enough to cherish, philosophical enough to inspire, and with so many killer tracks it might as well be a latterday greatest hits. It is, at the very least, an album to speak of in the same breath as their best and what other band of their longevity can boast of that?"

I can't wait!

Read the full thing by hitting http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/neil_mccormick/blog/2009/02/16/u2_no_line_on_the_horizon__full_review_plus_what_bono_really_thinks

Your name is safe in the mouths of those who love you.

I did the talk at the Commencement Service of the Rochester & Rutherford Hall at Canterbury University last night. R&R is a residence hall with around 180 students - I'm one of the part-time chaplains there.

Here is an excerpt...
A friend sent me an email with some quotes from children on love… some are hard case and some are quite profound…
Karl - age 5 'Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on after shave and they go out and smell each other.'
Chrissie - age 6 'Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.' Emily - age 8 'Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more. My Mummy and Daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss' Bobby - age 7 'Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.' Lauren - age 4 'I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones.'

This one in particular stood out…
Billy - age 4 'When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouth.'

I think the reading we heard from Isaiah is fundamentally about God saying that our names are safe in his mouth –
I have called you by name and you are mine – whatever goes on – the ups and downs, I will be with you, I will never leave you or abandon you.

Whose mouth is your name safe in?
How might you minimize the risk of someone using your name in an abusive manner
or in a way that diminishes you?

As a church minister I get to do a few interesting things – one of the highlights was when I was invited to be a part of an evening series of talks aimed at the Year 10 girls and their parents, on the subject of sex.

The other speakers were talking about body and health things but the Principal wanted someone to talk about values and stuff like that, and I was asked. What an opportunity!

The reaction from the girls when I mentioned anything to do with sex was really quite wonderful… and the reaction from the parents was equally good.
The girls went ‘ooh’ and the parents… well, they tended to look at the floor!

I figured that if the minister dared to talk about these matters in a frank and open way then the girls and their parents might find it easier to talk
– because it is better to be able to talk about it than have it treated as something shameful.

Among the things I put to the girls were these observations:
Guys see having sex as a conquest more than girls do
– do you want to be a notch in some guys belt?
Guys are more likely to talk about their sexual exploits than girls
– do you want to be talked about in that way?
Guys are more likely to name their sexual partners
– do you want your name being broadcast in such a way?

I was talking to a bunch of girls but what I was saying is equally relevant to guys…
Do you want to be the kind of guy who treats women as objects to satiate your desires?
Would you want your life-partner to also be understood as some sort of trophy in another guy’s cupboard of memories?
Would you like it if your sister or daughter was understood diminished in this way?

The point is this: Is your name going to be safe in the mouth of the person you are thinking about being intimate with?
Be careful. In the journey of finding yourself, which is so much of what university life is about, don’t lose yourself.
Don’t settle for something less just because you now have incredible freedom.
In what ways can you let the words and actions of ‘I love you’ always be something precious in your life.

thoughts on balance

I got a bit excited on Sunday... (in the sermon that is)...
"Balance. The Giver of Life calls us to a life of faith as a response to all that is given – balance.
I will be your God – and you will be my people. “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” [Deuteronomy 6:4-5] Balance – I and Thou. And, “Love your neighbour as yourself.” [Leviticus 19:18] – more balance.

We also have a sense that we creatures are to live in balance with the creation – there has to be some balance in how we live so that this earth can continue to sustain us.
There are many signs that we have are not living in a balanced way.
We pollute the air and are seriously undermining the delegate structure of the earth’s atmosphere.
We take from the land more than we give back to it.
We seek short term profit at the expense of sustainable living, and we expect others to have less so that we can have more.
Love your neighbour as yourself is a call to balance.
And God balances things… w
here we are cautious God is reckless
– a party thrown for a lost sheep,
a boy welcomed home,
a party and people invited from the edges of the town…
a woman allowed to pour precious oil on his feet as she wipes them with her hair.

Where we offer a half-measure, God counters with cup running over.
Where we say no to people God says yes.
Where we are half-hearted God counters with total self-giving.
Where we say ‘I will love you if…’ God says ‘I love you anyway!’

The unforgiveable is forgiven,
the betrayer is kissed,
the weak are held up and the strong have a few truths pointed out.
Balance.

Not blandness, not mediocrity, not the soft-option
– but an extravagant counterculture of grace.
That’s God’s way – that’s the way that the church,
called into being by Jesus, is to live – extravagant grace.

Bushfire

My thoughts & prayers have been in Victoria this week. A friend sent these images...

a 737 taking off from Melbourne

The boy with no shoes

William Horwood's books have long been among my favourites - in particular Duncton Wood, Skallagrigg and The Stonor Eagles. It has been interesting, in reading this book, to see how his early life experiences shaped the approach he took to his novels...

There is a lot of heart in this memoir - as well as courage and hope... it is fascinating to reflect on how at just the right times in his early life he had caring adults about him who believed in him.

Of anything Horwood has written, this story could easily be turned into a film, a film to rival Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes.