Sweet Jesus

You've heard the saying concerning working with children and animals? Add to that electric appliances...Sunday night, it being the finale to our Great Expectations series, I decided to add to the anticipation of Communion by cooking bread live in the service. I have done this before with great success...not this time! When the moment came and I lifted the lid of the breadmaker I was greeted with something that looked only a little like bread.

So, I tipped off one of our resourceful people to go see what she could find...there'd be bread in the kitchen...a cake maybe? No. Just chocolate. Lots of it. Dark. White. In Christmas shapes.

So we consumed the sweet body of Jesus Christ, not to be confused with sweet breads...it was quite a moment! I guess I shouldn't have preached from Acts 8:28

Still with 3 seekers there, 2 of whom accepted the invitation to take communion, I'm not complaining - we even had a first timer pray aloud, go figure?

Merry Christmas

It was about this date 20 years ago that a sceptical 19 year-old atheist gave the God he didn't believe in 1 week to show himself. I'm always drawn to that rash challenge this time of year...life has never quite been the same since! For me, there has always been a palpable sense of the incarnation - to go from someone UNABLE to believe in any way in a God and then to miraculously literally overnight experience a subjective revelation of a God...well its really too hard to explain adequately. But it has always meant for me that one day there was this place without God and the next there was this whole new vista of spiritual experience.

Anyways, it makes Christmas a very real time of joy, remembrance etc for me.

Today we open presents...as soon as a little boy wakes up! And then its off to family for the day. Brunch at my brothers and then down to Tauranga for a Jones family reunion.

Whatever you're doing this year, Merry Christmas!

An Immaculate Conception

So, speaking of virgin births...did you know that the whole immaculate conception term is a horribly misapplied in colloquial chit chat? I've often heard it used to describe the role of God in Jesus' conception - ie Jesus was immaculately conceived because God was his Father and therefore no actual sex took place. When you add to that the literal meaning of the word: without stain or blemish, you're left with this horribly Victorian sense that it is the act of sexual intercourse that is the issue. Jesus was immaculately conceived, without stain or blemish, because there was no sex involved. Which is actually quite wrong as it turns out!

Its the identify of the mother, Mary that fuels the CATHOLIC doctrine of immaculate conception - MARY was the one given special grace by God so that the taint of original sin did not pass to Jesus. Interesting huh?

Protestants still go for the virgin birth mostly, but opt for the idea of Incarnation - the miraculous conception of Jesus - but not the immaculate.

All this to say it's Christmas soon...

...And: we're expecting our second child in July 2007. The world's worst kept secret!

Blog Under Construction

Alright, so I finally switched to the new blogger thingie...and so with it a change in template. Work to do yet so don't feel offended if I haven't linked you yet...

Borat: The Anti-Christ?

So I went to see Borat, or should I say Boor-Rat, on Monday. Much of the content was lewd and obscene. I didn't catch the censorship rating but I hope it was high. For a Jewish guy he's remarkably anti-semitic and quite gypsy-phobic - that could be cultural I guess, so who am I to judge? I was surprised that he seemed to like black people (he marries one in the end). I think he has a connection with that Ali G guy who is a blackguy who gets quite a lot of prejudicial for being very whiteskinned for someone of his race. There was one scene where a pastor, who seemed like a very sincere man of God to me, left a dinner party because a prostitute arrived. You can see why that was a very biblical choice for a man in his position. His English was very good for someone from his country and it was great to hear the national anthem of Kazikstan in English - whoever translated it did an excellent job because it still rhymed after translation.

It was cool to see him make a commitment to Christ and I hope it was for real. But its hard to tell because some bad stuff happened after that which made me wonder.

Anyway, I'm glad I seen it so I can have an opinion on it.













Borat

New Grace

I'm always on the lookout for new ways to freshen our dinner graces. Its been a long while since "Meet the Parents" redefined the possibilities. At last something new to help.

Drinking Games

There's a discussion over on Paul Windsor's blog on the alcy-whole question - not the usual tired rhetoric - consumed my blogging energy today so its the best you'll do if you wanted to know what I think about anything!

Daddy Daycare

So yesterday I was Daddy Daycare while Kristen worked as a music teacher at a primary school. It makes for an interesting day:

> The day starts early - no not with the pitter patter of little feet, but rather the pitter patter of little fingers as I make an early start to clearing emails and organising a few tasks that won't wait...

> My son and heir rises in a very good mood. He feasts on banana and toast with jam with the ever present cry for "juice" issuing from his lips. Fortunately he still thinks water is juice so his diet remains free of sugar cravings!

> The morning ritual includes Clifford and Blue's Clues which he watches from 8.20am. I sneak on to the laptop which promptly crashes the moment I try to save my work! As Blues Clues ends Daddy working on the laptop is no longer a possibility: first he starts tracing the letters on the whiteboard I'm working from saying "wri..." Smart kid - so smart he wipes half of the info off! Then he decides its time for a break so he grabs my hand and hauls me into the play area. How can I resist?

> The play activity of choice this morning is a big blue balloon. You can throw it, kick it, bounce it off the roof. No end of options. Rhys loves balloons.

> Then its time to get dressed. I have decided this is my opening to clean the upstairs bathroom. So clothes and bedroom play are interspersed with the activities of bathroom cleaning. The plan is a great success.

> Surprisingly, he asks for a mid morning "nack". He enjoys the apple which keeps him happy until he's decided he's had enough - cue: apple pieces start hitting the floor. He is released from the high chair but only to the task of picking up the apple. This is an aversion therapy which he hates. In fact, he throws the apple in tantrum so its off to timeout in his bedroom. When I return he is in the process of putting himself to bed, so I cut him slack on the grounds of tiredness and he has an early nap (after we read a Pooh Bear book).

> The child sleeps! Time for work.

> Rhys wakes up around 1.30 - its time for lunch - yoghurt and marmite sandwiches. Rhys is often spoiled with circle, triangle and square sandwiches by his daddy, but not today, he has the downstairs bathroom in his sights! So Rhys munches happily while I clean the bathroom. He manages to smear most of his face with yoghurt, but I have learned not to give him the sandwiches till after the yoghurt otherwise he dips them into the pottle...

> Its a reasonable day outside so we go to the park via Blockbuster. Rhys does very well climbing the ladder on the slide and thinks the swings are great fun. He has such a good memory of the only other time we have been to this park and how his mama sat on the swing next to him - he points to the swing and says, "mama?" Then realising she is not there he says, "Daddeee". So I join him on the swings and he giggles like a maniac. We also practise kicking a ball which he is improving at each time. We climb a few other things and try a roundabout spinning thing together. Its fun.

> Then its home via Bunnings to get a watering can. We get home just as mama is returning from school. He's a bit surprised to see her hanging out the car window!

> Strangely Rys catches onto the watering can with virtually no prompting. Rhys often helps Daddy give the plants "juice" using the hose. So when Mama suggests he help give the plants juice, he picks up the empty watering can and starts pouring on the plants! Don't know where that came from. But as I said "smart kid".

> With Mama home Daddy Daycare does a little more work either side of cooking dinner and then heads off to a meeting. Its been a fun day!

Proud to Be a Kiwi

What a weekend of sport! The All Blacks thump the French. The Kiwi League team smashes the Pomes! The combined scores of both opposition teams fails to exceed 10...thats a thrashing for the northern hemisphere. Thats without mentioned England's loss to Argentina...oops I just mentioned it...while I am mentioning it - thats Argentina AWAY - they play at least 50% better at home - this truly is a woeful English team.

Remember the Kiwi league team nearly beat Aussie after a disappointing start to the Tri Nations - but now they have comprehensively outplayed the Pomes twice. We can only pray the Aussies wake up and beat the Pomes next week (I know that doesn't feel right to me either) so that we get the final against the Aussies - which we will win.

The AB's seems head and shoulders above the rest of the world right now. Not that I overrate a bumbling French team whose lineout play and defence were lowert han club level. Even so, you'd have to say the AB's still have a lot of improvement in them - this was not a vintage performance from them even though it was a crushing victory. The scrum was destructive and the scrambling defence superb. But the first up defence was tested by the French at times - Luke McAlister probably played himself out of a first pick place at second five for the World Cup. The lineout was adequate but flattered by an awful French lineout. On attack there were some issues with fluency - again it was the counterattack and individual brilliance which opened the French up. So I won't get too carried away with this performance but nor will I jump on the "AB's are peaking too early" bandwagon. They will need to be even better to take the world cup next year.

The selectors are threatening to pick their first XV next week for the second test against the French - here's my effort:

MacDonald
Sivivatu
Gear
Smith
Mauger
Carter
Kelleher
Soi'alo
Collins
McCaw
Jack
Robinson
Hayman
Mealamu
Woodcock

Reserves: Weepu, Nonu, Muliaina, Tialata, Oliver, Williams, Masoe

Williams is very unlucky - he is playing very well - I just like Robinson's hardness and reliability at lineout time. McAlister is also very unlucky not to get a bench spot. But with Mauger able to shift into 1stV and no other fullback on the field you've got to give Mils a run. In a straight swap with Nonu, the big man gets the nod as a genuine impact player - especially against northern hemisphere teams who just can't handle the psychological and actual impact of a player like Nonu.

Bring it on!

Who is Ted Haggard?

Faced with the very public fall of one of the US Church's most well-known leaders, many New Zealanders are like, "Who?" Anyways, for those who are interested in understanding what has happened here are some sources you might follow up:

Ted Haggard - Background Story

Ted Haggard's Confession

Gayle Haggard's Response

Thoughts From Gordon MacDonald

Oh, and the answer to the question in the title? A quote from Haggard's letter:

"There is a part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I’ve been warring against it all of my adult life...The public person I was wasn’t a lie; it was just incomplete. When I stopped communicating about my problems, the darkness increased and finally dominated me. As a result, I did things that were contrary to everything I believe."

New Labour

So Labour is going to deliberately court a section of the Christian vote...perhaps I'm cynical...no perhaps about it! But anyway, despite some rather odd comments in the article, it seems like the left is slowly getting itself organised to respond to the sometimes orchestrated politicisation of the Christian right. With that in mind I thought I would assist the Labour party by completing a partial segmentation of this unexploited market:

• The new Labour Christians will be quite different from some Christians on the issue of killing people. Instead of being pro war and pro death penalty with a homicidal commitment to being anti abortion, the new Labour Christians will be anti killing people;
• They will drink only fair trade coffee (usually freshly roasted by some trendy local coffee roaster) but not if its from Esquires (low quality coffee like the exploitation of coffee bean growers all over the world, leaves a bad taste in the mouth);
• They will have a commitment to the environment and might even vote green if it weren't for the dope-smoking fine print;
• They might read Brian McLaren, Robb Bell, Doug Pagitt et al but probably won't be Tim La Haye or Frank Peretti fans;
• They will support the welfare state as a concept where it seeks to ameliorate the effects of social inequity, but will want to see some long term efforts to reduce the cycle of poverty;
• They probably won't attend Destiny Church;
• They will give to Tear Fund but probably not World Vision;
• They will happily overlook Helen Clark's commitment to a radical policy of social re engineering, because thats still the price of voting Labour;
• They will likely be refugees from pentecostalism, although not exclusively;
• They will love Bono...

Alright so its not exhaustive but its a start. Have I missed any key attributes that should be immediately communicated to the Labour PR spin doctors?

Mainstream Fundamentalists

Some "interesting" comments from gaynz on the Family First event on the weekend. Whatever you think of Family First, this writer got it completely wrong with his description of Vision Network New Zealand and Daystar. Elements within the gay community are very free with their demonising language: you are homophobic if you express any reservation about the gay lifestyle; now you are a fundamentalist if you adopt an historic Christian viewpoint (appropriately balanced by love, tolerance etc).

Actually when you think about it there is a sectarian, fundamentalism that goes with that kind of attitude. I'm as tired of the rhetoric from some of these idiots as I am with the litany of hate that issues forth from extreme elements of the Christian "right".

It seems a shame to target some of the more genuine defenders of orthodox Christianity as if they are indistinguishable from the more militant elements.

I asked, "Do you speak-a my language?"

He just smiled and gave me a vegemite sandwich.

Well not it seems if you are one of the near 100,000 Australian and New Zealand expatriates in the US who are officially up in arms at crazy US border guards searching them for Vegemite. The reason? Vegemite has fallen foul of an obscure US dietary law that bans folate, one of its ingredients, from anything other than bread and cereals. Folate is a highly dangerous compound, necessary for the production and maintenance of new cells. This is especially important during periods of rapid cell division and growth such as infancy and pregnancy. In fact, and this is where it gets bizarre, since 1998, food manufacturers in the US have been required to add folic acid to enriched breads, cereals, flours, corn meals, pastas, rice, and other grain products. These regulations were specifically targeted to reduce the risk of birth defects in newborns. So go figure why its not allowed in Vegemite.

But I have a suggestion for you: they're not yet onto the fact that marmite also contains folic acid - so just take your marmite in instead and look the border guard straight in the eye when you deny the presence of vegemite in your bags. After all, right-thinking people, understand that marmite is the superior product.

I do wonder if this will create some real issues for customs/immigration:

• Will it now be a crime to joke in line, "Do you want to see my vegemite sandwich?"
• Will jars of vegemite left unattended in airports be blown up by bomb squads?
• And if an overzealous border guard conducts a cavity search, how will they know if its vegemite?

The End of the Beginning

A big night for cessioncommunity last night as we celebrated a feast of community:

• The recognition of cessioncommunity as an Established church within the Wesleyan Methodist church
• The commissioning of our foundation Servant Leaders
• The Ministerial Licensing of Frank Ritchie

Such a significant time.

I sense that it truly is the end of the beginning. We are no longer a church plant able to trade on the "we're just getting started" thing. We are now the real deal. I believe its time to step up.

Especially the pastor...not because of the "special" in "especially" but because I know I have more to give and I'm not prepared to leave anything on the field, as they say in sporting parlance.

My biggest challenge? To consistently live out of Luke 4:16-21 and be one of the crowd with my eyes "fastened" on Jesus Christ.

Images from Vacation

So I finally got round to downloading our vacation pictures! There are more family type pictures (mainly of Rhys over at Jonescam).













St Louis - Gateway to the West!















The Mississippi

The Winemaker was a Kiwi!

"It's grapejuice I swear!"

"Is it wine?"

Bluegrass - Just like Parachute!