Christmas New Year and stuff like that

I found an old message I sent out a few Christmases ago... I've adapted it for now...

I have decided to declare my New Year's resolutions even though I don't do that sort of thing and never intend to keep them anyway - but you never know...
#1 ignore the television for the summer... I totally ignore TV news anyway - I have done for 3 years now and there are no side effects - but there are huge benefits... for instance, I am more pleasant to be around because I no longer argue out loud with the newsreaders about their content, their assumptions and their blatant manipulation of the news in order to entice an audience.
#2 instead of drinking too much, I have decided to drink less more often. (I don't think I drink too much anyway but have decided to make this resolution just in case I am tempted).
#3 befriend dairy farmers. Actually I will only need to befriend one and immediately there will be the thrill of basking in the company of someone who has $800,000 plus surplus money this year. If I earned $800,000 in one year I could move a few mountains, but these people have received on average $800,000 as a bonus payment above the existing record payouts for milk this year - come on you lot... do something amazing with that money!
#4 stage a protest at the cost of cheese, milk, butter and meat. The cheese prices have doubled in the last three years - why? Everywhere you look there is a blimmin cow eating grass. Our water ways are being polluted with the excess nitrates from all the fertiliser applied, the cows fart all the time, and every farm looks the same with huge paddocks and all the trees removed. This has to be bad for the land in the long term... good things in excess always have a cost... so at least can't we get discount milk products??? Soon we will have to import cheese because our local stuff costs too much - how dumb is that when there is a bloody cow wherever you look?
#5 stop swearing
#6 live each day as if it is the last one. This might sound easy to you but it is not for me - it means not wishing any time away (including the shitty things of life) and it means never winning Lotto because I will not invest in it (I know that this is radical counter-culture thing in NZ society, to not believe that something will appear out of nowhere and make my life all better, but I am prepared to stick out in the crowd on this one). Another way of putting this is to live life to the full... each blessed minute... I put this to the test this year when I went to visit the dentist. There I was sitting in the chair watching as the needle approached and saying to myself - live in the moment mate... look for the good, take the pain, wear a gummy smile on your face as you part with a significant proprortion of your weekly income - and hey, it was ok! I have finally found a very competent dentist! (And I will have this to say to my new-found cow farmer friends: "Go to the dentist as soon as possible and you will have only half the pain you usually have because with your big payout you won't notice what happens as you do the tally up at the reception desk!)
#7 make more time to talk with George Bush about why I think his foreign policy is nothing more than fearmongering and doing wease [Rory (see comment below) thinks it is wees but I think he only thinks that way because he is such a small guy] into the wind, and advise him to read Brave New World by Huxley. If he is not available I will set up a meeting with Condolezza Rice and the people standing for election as President. This is very important.
#8 vote Labour in the 2008 election. The signs are there that Labour may struggle to hold office after the election, and as I have a heart for the underdog I will vote for them. Added to this, I still don't detect any heart at all for the underdog in the National Party's policies.
#9 try not to save the world in 2008. You might think this is silly, but to actually step back and trust that God has the salvation thing in hand is a big thing for any Christian. I truly wonder how many people would hear God saying 'Shut up and let me handle this' if they would only shut up and listen to God instead of putting words into God's mouth.
#10 make war less, make love more, stop to smell flowers, smile at children, take a deep breath before responding to fools, and give thanks in all things.

#7 looks do-able but I may struggle with the rest

Truck progress #10

$12,810 as of today - a few parishes have had people contribute... St Mark's in Avonhead, and St Martin's in St Martin's (yeah I know) - they have had an ongoing relationship with the Meier's and wanted to support this! Thanks! There's room for a few more to be on board as well!

A Touch of Sleeve

On Monday night I was involved in the launching of my friend Susan Bell's amazing book, A Touch of Sleeve. Susan asked if I would be the launcher which was an honour and a privilege (if the two things aren't the same!). Around 90 people gathered at the University Bookshop and we had a lot of fun... the neat thing was that Hisashi (who the book is about) was able to be there. He is in his late 80's.

Hisashi is Japanese and has done what Japanese men don't do - he has recounted to Susan his experience of life in Japan during World War II, the defeat and occupation. Culturally he has broken a kind of taboo - and according to a proverb he relates, been the frog who opens his mouth so wide that the contents of his insides can be seen...

The insight into Japanese life that comes from this opening his mouth widely is profound. I read some of the early draft chapters (that have since been radically revised as the book took its current shape) and the account of the fire bombing of Tokyo in particular was both harrowing and astonishing.

Until now, little has been known of the Japanese side of the war experience.

Susan with Hisashi's help has opened the window for us to look in - it promises to be a break-through book and I wish Susan well!

It is available around the country for $39.95 - I hope people get the opportunity to read it.

http://www.longacre.co.nz/books/Sleeve.html

Truck Progress #8

I didn't get time to do the Friday update - so here is Friday and Saturday combined...

we are up to $11,000! One couple were particularly generous sending in a $2000 cheque! That really helped. Things had been a bit slower...

Hopefully there are some others out there who will help us meet at least the truck cost of $20,000! But we are over halfway!

I am in Dunedin for a couple of days to catch up with Anne and help launch a book - more on that later so the next update will be Wednesday.

Truck progress #6

$7450 after today's mail. What was really pleasing was to receive three donations from people who have heard about it from others! Great! Thanks!

Truck progress #1

Today's mail contained the first cheques for the Vanuatu Truck - $1100 - we are on the way!

A Truck for Vanuatu

THE EBULE TRAINING CENTRE IN PORT VILA, VANUATU
NEEDS A TRUCK

A photo I took of Rob Meier & trainees at the Ebule Urban Training Centre

And Anne and I are trying to raise $25,000 in three weeks so that it can be purchased. We have sent out 108 letters to people we know with the following options:

#1 Tell us where to go
#2 Say ‘Oh I wish I could but I have no spare cash.’
#3 Ask for more info – email or phone Mart the Rev
#4 Be bold and make a commitment, post it to us asap

Cheques made out to 'Global Mission office' can be sent to Martin & Anne Stewart, 5a Truman Rd, Bryndwr Christchurch. Receipts will be issued for tax purposes.

Can you help?

We will post a running total each week!

A lot of music at the moment

Anne and I have just had an influx of new cds and dvds that we are loving after a few months of the decemberists, crowded house and the cowboy junkies new album

Here is what has pushed the buttons for us...

Bruce Springsteen's Magic (some of the old magic that got us hooked with his The Rising album) Liam Finn's I'll be lightening, (which has some startling rhythms - the title track stands out so far and has Neil Finn demonstrating his genius on bass), David Gilmour's Live at the Royal Albert Hall DVD is a classic - especially enhanced by having Crosby and Nash singing, and the Cowboy Junkies Trinity Revisited - it is a CD and DVD where they go back to the Holy Trinity Church in downtown Toronto and do the same tracks as the original The Trinity Sessions album of 20 years ago with a few other musicians in tow. We watched the DVD for the first time last night and it was quite brilliant. The cinematography is fantastic and adds to the wonderful sound. It was recorded in a day just like the original. Ryan Adams, Vic Chesnutt and especially Natalie Merchant, add ouitstanding vocals to Margo Timmins' (pictured) uncomplicated sonic genius.

If people are new to the Junkies then I have suggested they start with The Trinity Sessions, but now, they need to start with Revisited.

We are also in the process of purchasing tickets to the Split Enz concert in Christchurch next March - yeah!

Crowded House Concert

Well, it was great!

Pluto had the hard graft of being first up - they had a few good sounds in their set but the mix was wrong and we worried that this would be the problem of the venue...

But Supergroove settled that with their Blues Brothers style and sound - they were wonderfully energetic and the sound was great. Che Fu was stunning. I hadn't seen them live before and I was most impressed.

But the night belonged to Neil Finn and his team. The lift professionally was amazing from band to band, and with Crowded House, we entered the stratosphere. I was pleasantly surprised with the choice of songs - many from Together Alone and a few of the more obscure songs from their debut album and only three from Woodface (Fall at your Feet, Weather With You & Four Seasons).

The new songs came across really well although I found Transit Lounge didn't come across as well as I hoped ('though the reviewer in The Press seemed to like it the most - actually it was a poor review - he seemed to be trying to provide an intellectual analysis of the three bands aside from the reality of it being a live concert - and his claim that half of the House set was from the new album was quite a stretch given that in the two hours there were only five or six songs off Time on Earth - actually I was amazed how little of the new album they used and wished they had done my favourites Pour Le Monde & English Trees).

What that reviewer also missed was mentioning the brilliant set. The unusual images, the light and the blend of effects was very artistic and kind of theatrical - after U2 and all their stunning computer-generated effects I couldn't imagine that there cound be a visual equivalent offered by another band - but there was here.

The three encores was much-appreciated as well... a great night thanks!

Crowded House Day

Tonight Anne and I are off to see Crowded House play in Christchurch with Supergroove & Pluto! Yay!

Remembering Parihaka

A colleague, John Hunt, reminded me this week that the 5th November is the anniversary of the invasion of the peaceful settlement of Parihaka in 1881 and the subsequent arrest of Te Whiti, Tohu and many others, and their incarceration in the South Island without trial, so that their land could be given to settlers.
John reckoned that it was of more significance in a NZ context to remember this than Guy Fawkes… I am planning to do this on Sunday with the whole focus on what happened at Parihaka. In light of recent events in NZ it kind of fits that we think about things from another angle… and Te Whiti’s non-violent passive resistance stands out as model for us all as to the way we might live the gospel… apparently Ghandi knew of Te Whiti and his way.

[the painting is by Seraphine Pick of Dunedin]

Here’s a poem…

THERE WAS A MAN

There was a man
preached peace
to warrior chiefs.

He built a pa
at Parihaka.
Soldiers burned it down

robbed the people
of their land
and livelihood.

He preached
to them as well.
They would not listen.

Our history
would be different
if they had.

How much longer
must we reap
their bitter harvest?

J C Sturm
[thought to be the first Maori woman to receive a university degree in 1949]

10 years of the St Stephen's Community Centre

And we are having a party! If you are in Christchurch, come along on Friday 26th 6pm - 7.30pm to St Stephen's, cnr Aorangi & Ilam Roads!!!

the decemberists

My daughter Hana sent Anne and I a copy of The Crame Wife by The Decemberists. It has been very well-received - I'm about to rave about it!

This music - folk-rock style, is very very good. The musicianship is tremendous, and the lyrics and singing unique and absorbing. The songs are folk ballads with guitars, drums and a glorious Hammond organ, with a few other instruments from time to time.

Last week we took Hana, Sam and Josh to the Gold Coast in Australia and this was the only CD we had in the car - we didn't get sick of it but all liked it. That in itself is quite something for we all have quite varied musical tastes.

I think you can download some songs from their webpage... http://www.decemberists.com/

I highly recommend this album!

article in Candour

Candour is an on-line journal for people in ministry in the Presbyt Church in NZ - I was editor of it years ago. Recently I was asked to submit an essay on hope in a climate of fear... here is what I came up with...
Fear: the enemy of hope that dances to death’s tune.

As I recall it, Alvin Tofler predicted in his 1970’s book Future Shock that fear and anxiety would be some of the by-products of our crazy fast-changing technological world, with people getting left behind because the future will come at them too fast. It looks like he was right… the proliferation of Prozac and other anti-depressants among people in the so-called developed world would suggest that depression and anxiety are part of the cost of change.
But I wonder if along with fear being a by-product of our peculiar society fear is also being used as a mechanism to manipulate people. Here are a few examples I can think of:
- the fear-mongering about a possible bird flu epidemic. A year or so ago we were ‘done for’ and people were stockpiling tamiflu pills, even though there was next to no evidence that those pills would be able to treat a virus that didn’t yet exist. Why the panic when there wasn’t anything we could do about it anyway?
- the projection of worse-case scenarios as actuality – we saw an example of this last month with President Bush announcing that inaction against Iran will likely result in nuclear holocaust. But more commonly we see this in the use of statistics as a way of projecting the future, and the results are almost always bleak. We even see these worse-case scenarios being used to provoke certain kinds of mission-action in the church. I find this use of statistics to predict the future of the church highly speculative and rather manipulative. A colleague listening to such stuff was reminded of a frequent comment from one of the characters in Dad’s Army who, speaking out of his congenital pessimism, would announce in almost every episode: “We’re doomed Captain Mannering.” Statistics are usually suggest we are doomed – and they get us all scrambling around in a dance of death . I think it was Lloyd Geering who suggested in the 1960’s that the last Presbyterian and Anglican would be meeting to close the door of the last church in the year 2000. Um… not quite, I like to think that God had another idea about that.
- fear of the enemy being used to stimulate nationalism and economic growth. This has been a consistent feature of the way successive United States administrations have behaved since World War II. As I understand it, from my geo-politics studies at university, the US has operated on a war economy since 1941… the economic growth from being almost constantly involved in warring has been astounding, and has, in the eyes of the powers that be, justified hideously large sums being used to manufacture the machinery and armaments of war, as well as popping up to the moon and back. Whether the enemy exists or not isn’t all that important – enemies can be created… (do you remember President Reagan invading Grenada?) Iraq is once such creation. The irony of the first Gulf War was that the missiles being directed at US aircraft by Iraqi forces were made in the US! It turns out that for many years Iraq had been supplied US arms as a buffer against Iran. While I am cautious about conspiracy theories, is it too much to imagine that the first President Bush deliberately left Iraq’s leadership intact for another day when it would be more convenient to invade? But then a problem emerged… there needed to be a reason to invade. Umm… what if we say that Iraq had Weapons of Mass Destruction? Now we are being told that Vietnam wasn’t so bad, but that it was the leaving of it that was a problem!
- the proliferation of end times theory as fact (the worst of these can be found in the hideous Left Behind novels), and the associated justification of violence, prejudice, intolerance, scape-goating and ignorance, as well as a laziness when it comes to attending to the tasks of making peace, caring for the environment, loving one’s neighbour, etc.

Of course there are many more examples, but what is most disturbing is the complicity of the church in this fear-mongering. I believe that hope is the attitude that Christians are called to exhibit in a fearful world that seems to bow to the triumph of death. Christian hope is not blind optimism or reality avoidance, but a living demonstration of there being a bigger story – a meta-narrative as some theologians describe it.
This big story is the narrative of God’s saving work in the world; the presence of the kingdom of God among us, yet still to come in its fullness; and a living into the reality of the victory of Christ over the powers of this world that seek to dominate us [see Colossians 2:13-15].
I believe that there is an explicit call for the people of God, who find themselves to be strangers in a strange land, to nevertheless live fearlessly, confidently and hopefully in God’s promises [Isaiah 43 etc].
It is our calling as the church of Jesus Christ to demonstrate to the fearful world that there is another way of seeing things for live this side of the incarnation, we live this side of the ministry of Jesus, we live this side of his death on the cross, we live this side of his resurrection and we live this side of his ascension. Thus we live hopefully, not fearfully. We live to the tune of life in its fullness and not to the march of death in all its fearfulness.
William Stringfellow, a lawyer and theologian, offered these words for the church in a world where the powers of fear and death seem to be reigning:
“In the face of death, live humanly. In the middle of chaos, celebrate the Word. Amidst babel… speak the truth. Confront the noise and verbiage and falsehood of death with the truth and potency and efficacy of the Word of God. Know the Word, teach the Word, nurture the Word, preach the Word, defend the Word, incarnate the Word, do the Word, live the Word. And more than that, in the Word of God, expose death and all death’s works and wiles, rebuke lies, cast out demons, exorcise, cleanse the possessed, raise those who are dead in mind and conscience.” [An Ethic for Christians and Other Aliens in a Strange Land 1973 p143]

on Christian political parties

I've submitted the following letter to the editor of The Press in Christchurch...
Destiny & Future NZ
I believe that the gospel of Jesus Christ cannot be reduced to political slogans or a set of policies, thus the notion of Christian political parties bothers me.
Destiny/Future NZ say they want to put families first, bring ‘morals’ into the political arena, and that ‘life means life’ in relation to how we treat violent offenders. But how can this be done in a way that doesn’t a)marginalise people who don’t fit into traditional categories; b) look out for those who are different from those in the Christian party, and c) restore offenders to a meaningful life with the possibility of release being the incentive for the changes they make? Aren’t these also gospel imperatives?
Jesus associated with those who the religious powers of his day marginalised. He challenged those who tried to enshrine God into a set of laws. Jesus never formed a party, instead, he called them to account. Herein lies what Christians can offer in the political arena: a voice among the voices, influence, encouragement, a reminder of what is important, and a challenge when necessary.
I have a few friends in Parliament and a colleague standing for Council who are all Christians. They are good people who I trust to bring an important and necessary gospel-informed perspective to the debates of the day. But they are not there suggesting that the gospel can automatically be turned into policy nor are they saying that their perspective represents what it means to be Christian.

a story I'm thinking of using on Sunday

Christian counselor Dennis Linn tells this wonderful story about how his mind was changed about God. He describes how his image of God was like stern old Uncle George, that Good Old Uncle George was the sort of person that people respected the old fashioned way [raising arm and fist to indicate 'respect' by brute force]. Then he tells this story of how his mind was changed:
One day Hilda came to me crying because her son had tried to commit suicide for the fourth time. She told me that he was involved in prostitution, drug dealing and murder. She ended her list of her son's "big sins" with, "What bothers me most is that my son says he wants nothing to do with God. What will happen to my son if he commits suicide without repenting and wanting nothing to do with God?"
Since at the time my image of God was like Good Old Uncle George, I thought "God will probably send your son to hell." But I didn't want to tell Hilda that. I was glad that my ... training had taught me ... to [instead] ask ..., "What do you think?"
"Well," Hilda replied, "I think that when you die, you appear before the judgment seat of God. If you have lived a good life, God will send you to heaven. If you have lived a bad life, God will send you to hell." [In other words, Hilda's God punishes and rewards. Our image of God has changed much since Moses, has it?!] Sadly, she concluded, "Since my son has lived such a bad life, if he were to die without repenting, God would certainly send him to hell."
Although I tended to agree with her, I didn't want to say, "Right on, Hilda! Your son would probably be sent to hell." I was again grateful for my theological training which taught me a second strategy: when you don't know how to solve a theological problem, then let God solve it. So I said to Hilda, "Close your eyes. Imagine that you are sitting next to the judgment seat of God. Imagine also that your son has died with all these serious sins and without repenting. Your son has just arrived at the judgment seat of God. Squeeze my hand when you can imagine that."
A few minutes later Hilda squeezed my hand. She described to me the entire judgment scene. Then I asked her, "Hilda, how does your son feel?" Hilda answered, "My son feels so lonely and empty." I asked Hilda what she would do. She said, "I want to throw my arms around my son." She lifted her arms and began to cry as she imagined herself holding her son tightly.
Finally, when she had stopped crying, I asked her to look into God's eyes and watch what God wanted to do. God stepped down from the throne, and just as Hilda did, embraced Hilda's son. And the three of them, Hilda, her son, and God, cried together and held one another.
I was stunned. What Hilda taught me in those few minutes is the bottom line of healthy Christian spirituality: God loves us at least as much as the person who loves us the most.
[as told by Paul J. Nuechterlein in a stunning sermon I am going to have to borrow heavily from http://girardianlectionary.net/year_c/proper19c_1995_ser.htm]

Glenn babes

Here he is in all his billboard glory!!!

fridge magnets

And while I'm at it here at St Stephen's we have a little mission to a village in Ethiopia where we help care for 60 elderly people with a modest amount of money, as well as helping the odd village with their water supply. This year as part of the mission report in our Annual Report we are including a fridge magnet for people to stick on their... fridges...

U2 communion thingee

In Christchurch we're working towards a kiwi version of the U2-charist worship service containing music by U2...

A group of us Presbyterians are holding it on 7 October (World Communion Sunday) at 5-45pm in the Hornby Community Presbyterian Church. I've tried to reproduce the poster for the blog...

Elections coming

I'm about to go and take a picture of my colleague Glenn Livingstone's billboard... he is standing for the local community board and the City Council... what is annoying is that he already has a moustache thus it is hard to deface the billboard - not that I have ever done that kind of things before but never before has it been a friend who I can make fun of in this way!

Before I go and get it here's a Leunig cartoon that kind of illustrates the path that politicians take... be careful Glenn! [source: The Age webpage]