A Haiku Says 3000 Words

So Rhett (jokingly) challenged me to condense my 3,000 word Christology essay into a Haiku. He can do this, because he's handed his in. And because he has the pragmatism of a full time student rather than the romantic idealism of a one paper at a time guy, his essay is tight, hits the right notes and has just the right amount of contrived intrigue. Whereas mine, rather like the occasional preacher who preaches 10 sermons every time he preaches, is full of mystery and ambiguity. And empty of words.

So because this tortuous process leads me to be distracted by anything I obliged:

The risen Christ speaks
Through cultures dead and breathing
Nazareth reborn

The fact that this does actually sum up my thesis, is perhaps my only sign of hope.

Words Mean Stuff

Check this out! Got this cool link from Rhett via Jonathan and applied it to the vision, mission and values of cession community from our new website - you just pop the words in and "hey presto!" They say a picture is worth a thousand words...well, here, um, some words paint a picture? Now I can't get this to show up nice and big so you can check out the full sized beast by clicking on the picture...

I Like Cats

Are You Psssst?

There is a new craze sweeping the country. Its largely a response to people using words that mean nothing. There words have become known as pssst aerosol words. With the recognition of the polluting effects of aerosol words on common decency and good sense, so there has come a need to distinguish one's own buy-in to the use of words, that one still has to use in order to be understood or at least properly misunderstood by normal people. This distinguishing act is known as "psssst".

"pssst" is similar to the use of double inverted commas being signified by the use of both hands either side of the head with the index and middle fingers extended and then flexed/double pumped. pssst is accompanied by the movement of one hand from immediately beside the mouth to a position approximately one foot away from the mouth, while the index finger is depressed downward as if activating an aerosol can.

Many will actually say the word pssst before mentioning the potentially psssst aerosol word. Others just do the action and move on without any sibilant utterance. Its incredibly liberating to be freed from the judgment of others who might otherwise think you are a sheep of the worst kind simply following the ideas of the masses without exercising any critical thought.

Try it - get pssst!

What I'm Reading...

"Behind the Humvee's wheel, Hickok was an iron man. Hickok drove like a low-flying aircraft buzzing the Kuwaiti Highway of Death...Whenever Hickok needed a break, he retired to the Humvee's cavernous backseat. There he amused himself, munching take-out double cheeseburgers, sipping strawberry shakes, and leafing through his ususal leisure reading, Christian apocalypse fiction...Hickok was a big devotee of a best-selling series called "Tribulation Force". In tomorrow's post-Armageddon world, the Rapture has carried off all the Believing Christians, leaving all the liberal scoffers, skeptics and atheists to fight it out with the evil trrops of the Antichrist. Hickok liked to read the most ruthless sections of the book aloud, chuckling to himself."

The Zenith Angle, Bruce Sterling

Some Preaching Thoughts

This article challenged me in a number of areas:

• It challenged me about the role of prayer in preaching preparation
• It reminded me to find ways of seeking spiritual wisdom from others
• It encouraged me to seek the affirmation and input of the Body
• But most of all it reminded me that it isn't about me

Any thoughts?

About Time

Around 18,000 abortions per year are performed in NZ. The vast majority on mental health grounds. This in a society where "a mental health day" is a common opting out of technique used for people who have been on the large the night before.

And finally someone has had the guts to say it. Justice Forrest Miller said, "There was reason to doubt the lawfulness of many abortions."

Critically the Judge held that the Bill of Rights, through the abortion law, had recognised the unborn child had a "claim on the conscience of the community, and not merely that of the mother". This is a great development for the more active balancing of the rights of the unborn child against the rights of the mother.

In what can only be described as bizarre, Women's National Abortion Campaign spokeswoman Di Cleary said that trying to legally enforce the rights of an unborn child would result in women being treated like children. This is a patently ridiculous assertion. What the Judge is saying is that the law DOES recognise a right in the unborn child that needs to be protected. There is a problem if that right is being routinely abused in circumstances where abortions are being provided where the real risk to a person's mental health goes little beyond the impact of "life happening".

I want to be clear, I'm not talking about cases on the extreme ends of this issue - abortions sought in circumstances of rape, incest or the physical health of the mother. But no matter how stressful an unplanned pregnancy might be outside the extreme examples cited, it pales into insignificance against the loss of life that we are seeing year after year.

Tom & Jerry Show Returns

Entirely Skantified

Last year it was "I'm Bringing Wesley Back". Two years ago it was "Wesleyan Healing". Could Entire Skantification go 3 for 3 at the WMCNZ Gathering in 2008?

Yes.

With an enlarged band and fresh blood in the writing department (Jon Emmitt), the Spirit moved (or was it something else) and the crisis of Entire Skantification was once again a strangely warming event...

"Wesley" (to the tune of the Commodore's hit "Easy")

VERSE 1
I know it sounds funny but I just can't stand to sing
Hymns that aren't by the Wesleys
Seems to me people write most anything
But they can't write like the Wesleys...ooo

CHORUS
That's why its Wesley (ah ah ah ah)
Wesley on Sunday Morning
That's why it Wesley
Wesley on Sunday Morning

VERSE 2
Why in the world would anybody sing Hillsong
When it cost so much to take it
Everybody wants me to sing like Vineyard
I'm not happy when I try to fake it...

BRIDGE
I want to be high, so high (church)
I want to be free to know the songs I sing are right (theologically speaking)
I want to be me, Eighteenth Century

SOLO - Rhett shredded it...
CHORUS

Cheesy dance moves from the BV's and the "Wesley represent" hand gesture from lead singer Jacob made this one of the better ES numbers...