Hi faithful readers of my blog. Just letting you all know that I am now writing a monthly column for an online Churches of Christ magazine called 'The Australian Christian'.
I have the honor of taking over an old column and renaming it. The old column is 'Christ and Today'. The new name is 'The foolish way'. The inference here in the re-invention of a column title is to say that the call to follow Jesus is foolishness. A careful read of the Gospels will certianly reveal as such and invite you on an exciting adventure. Such will be the nature of my monthly articles...I hope. So I won't say too much now, you're just going to have to check it out and have a read.
The first on my articles has just been published today and I have the article also posted on this blog so you get this one for free! It's titled the otherness of God.
So click on the link above, the AC online is a great read. Check the side bar for 'The foolish way' to find me. You can't read the whole thing unless you're a member so sign up and support our online mag.
Let me know what you think. Cheers Mark
Thursday, January 31, 2008
May we overcome indifference
Another year has kicked off to a flying start and today marks the first Sunday of the year that everything kicks back into full swing. We have all returned to our work, study and play routines, and we’ve all returned back to worship after a period where many of us have been away. Welcome back everyone!
Let us not be too comfortable in routines however but let us expect the Spirit of God to take us on an adventure. Let us expect new things to happen to us and around us as we continue to participate in the church of Christ. I’m not just taking about the denominational version of Churches of Christ we may lovingly dedicate our loyalties to, I’m talking about our participation in the broader movement of Christ.
I have enjoyed some of the conversations myself and other clergy in the area have been having about our outlook on 2008 and our participation together in the kingdom of God. There is an energy swirling as we prepare to also invite our congregations into the conversation with one another through post-Easter ecumenical studies. However it seems that not everyone is looking forward with the same enthusiasm. I was saddened to see an email land in my inbox last week that made my heart sink. It was from a clergy member in our network who began by encouraging me for my enthusiasm about ecumenical studies which lifted my spirits. The email then went on to read why their congregation probably won’t participate. Apparently the church already have small groups who are comfortable ‘sharing and having fellowship’ among themselves and are reluctant to give this up. They suggested that maybe they’ll grab their own copies of ‘ecumenical’ studies and do it among themselves (which defeats the purpose of what our SA council of churches are trying to achieve).
The spirit within me groans deeply and the inner voice once again reminds me that the church was never intended to be a group that existed for fellowship among ourselves, nor was it intended that we would separate out into communities (denominations) of like minded people for our own comfort for fear of someone having difference of theological opinion.
We only have everything to be gained from participation in dialogue with our friends from other Christian traditions. It must be a task at the front of the agenda of every Christian church that we go out of our way to embrace one another in guided conversations such as these. Our commitment to embracing one another in love is imperative for making meaning of the movement of Christ. Maybe then, that which gives us meaning may be known to the wider world through the language of unity, grace, hope and love. Hopefully by understanding one another we may learn something more about what it means to embrace the other. Then ‘fellowship’ with Christ wouldn’t be confined to the groups of people we know and are comfortable with but would be shared as it ought to be, with others.
Shalom
Mark
Let us not be too comfortable in routines however but let us expect the Spirit of God to take us on an adventure. Let us expect new things to happen to us and around us as we continue to participate in the church of Christ. I’m not just taking about the denominational version of Churches of Christ we may lovingly dedicate our loyalties to, I’m talking about our participation in the broader movement of Christ.
I have enjoyed some of the conversations myself and other clergy in the area have been having about our outlook on 2008 and our participation together in the kingdom of God. There is an energy swirling as we prepare to also invite our congregations into the conversation with one another through post-Easter ecumenical studies. However it seems that not everyone is looking forward with the same enthusiasm. I was saddened to see an email land in my inbox last week that made my heart sink. It was from a clergy member in our network who began by encouraging me for my enthusiasm about ecumenical studies which lifted my spirits. The email then went on to read why their congregation probably won’t participate. Apparently the church already have small groups who are comfortable ‘sharing and having fellowship’ among themselves and are reluctant to give this up. They suggested that maybe they’ll grab their own copies of ‘ecumenical’ studies and do it among themselves (which defeats the purpose of what our SA council of churches are trying to achieve).
The spirit within me groans deeply and the inner voice once again reminds me that the church was never intended to be a group that existed for fellowship among ourselves, nor was it intended that we would separate out into communities (denominations) of like minded people for our own comfort for fear of someone having difference of theological opinion.
We only have everything to be gained from participation in dialogue with our friends from other Christian traditions. It must be a task at the front of the agenda of every Christian church that we go out of our way to embrace one another in guided conversations such as these. Our commitment to embracing one another in love is imperative for making meaning of the movement of Christ. Maybe then, that which gives us meaning may be known to the wider world through the language of unity, grace, hope and love. Hopefully by understanding one another we may learn something more about what it means to embrace the other. Then ‘fellowship’ with Christ wouldn’t be confined to the groups of people we know and are comfortable with but would be shared as it ought to be, with others.
Shalom
Mark
The otherness of God
I became deeply intrigued with the TV program Lost, especially with the introduction of ‘the others’. The directors of Lost really do capture the true essence of human nature when the survivors who crash-landed on a mysterious island discover ‘the others', who existed on the island before them. The discovery of the others by the characters we as viewers have come to like and identify with is met with a classic reaction of fear and suspicion of what they do not understand. What’s more is they cannot see, manipulate or control the others, which frustrates our beloved survivors. It’s not until the series unfolds that we discover that the others have a story, too. So herein lies the question: can we cast aside our fears and suspicions long enough to actually hear and - maybe - understand the story of the other?I once heard of a Christian congratulating an atheist on being liberated of their atheism because they admitted that there is a possibility that God could exist outside their understanding. While many of us would like to applaud our Christian friend for pointing out the limitations of the human mind and experience, we mustn’t be too smug in our deliberations or ownership over the nature of God. Many who claim to have the inside word on who God is and how God chooses to reveal Godself often struggle to participate in the on going dialogue and discovery of who God is, who we are, and who we are in relationship with God and one another. I would dare to expand on that and say that God can exist beyond anyone’s understanding. In fact it is in that which we do not understand that we could discover something new and profound about the nature of God. God is most often revealed to us through that which we cannot explain, or outside our experience. Let us not forget the wisdom in the question, ‘Is it possible that God could exist outside your understanding?’
There is room to discover that God is much greater than the explanations, names and descriptions we give. In fact, all that we do not know or are yet to understand about the nature of God is found in otherness, that is, the other. While we are called to care for and seek justice for the other we have an ethical hesitation towards the other because of difference of opinion, doctrine or choice of lifestyle. The other may be that which we are afraid of or do not understand, it may be the conversation we’ve failed to have or the person we struggle to love. If we open our hearts and minds we discover that God is revealed in the other and we must acknowledge that God exists in relationship with us intimately but also in the distant other we are yet to discover. We do not contain all knowledge and understanding which makes our journey so enriching and new each day.
We discover the nature of God revealed in human form through Jesus, yet even that has its limits for us. It is through Jesus’ example that we are called to continue to discover justice, love, grace, compassion and mercy as we interact with the other. It is through this practice that we continue to discover and rediscover the nature of God and the fulfillment of God’s kingdom. The Spirit prompts and calls us on to continue the journey, discover ourselves and what God truly wants from us.
I believe Jesus’ life, death and resurrection is about so much more than we sometimes understand. God’s tick of approval on the life and ministry of Jesus must remind us of a life of faithfulness lived not only as an example to us all but hopefully as a beacon to help show us where our sin really lets us down and is the cause of our failure to also live such a life. We acknowledge that we need a savior but do we know what we really need salvation from? I believe that one of our greatest sins is displayed in the expulsion, exclusion and segregation of ‘the other’ because of our fear or lack of understanding.
Is it possible that we could learn something profound about the nature of God by embracing the other? May we always be embracing of otherness and may your life be enriched by the colourful tapestry of the nature of God.
Shalom Mark
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Another member of Vox Congo becomes a permenant resident in Australia today
I invite you to celebrate with me friends once more as I have tears in my eyes yet again (what a sook).
Martinse Kanda member of Vox Congo (the little shy guy who plays Rhythm and drums) is now a permanent resident in Australia as of today when he received his letter in the mail. This news comes 6 months after Papy received his full residency. This is a huge celebration for Vox Congo and testimony to their faith. I have developed a very close relationship with these 4 guys since they arrived in Melbourne in 2002 and have seen the many heart breaks and disappointments time after time as they we’re told they couldn’t stay, they were told they were non-persons and even their closest advisors told them there was no hope.
Not once did their spirit or faith falter under the pressure. Depression lured many times but their faith and hope lifted them. Martinse and Carmen as well as the rest of the guys have asked me to thankyou all for your tireless support and for never giving up on them. Thankyou for you letters, petitions, friendship, showing up at concerts, your meals, clothing, financial support and a roof over their heads. Often we don’t get to see the impact we can have in lives or hear the good news stories, well here they are, a testimony to your efforts in standing by the neglected and the cast aside in their time of need. Well done.
We ask for your continued prayer and support for Etienne (band leader) and Adolphe (the unforgettable Bass player). I had a series of meetings with them in November last year and they were not traveling well. They miss family, they are feeling lost and confused, yet they still have great hope. I am concerned for my friends and I ask that you please stay with them in prayer and support. After their visit to Adelaide in November I was at a wedding with them in Melbourne and Etienne asked if I could launch an appeal for him and Adolphe to the new immigration minister. Asylum seekers and refugees have a new found hope in our new government who seems to know the meaning of compassion based on recent actions like the release of the prisoners (unlawfully detained refugees) from Naru.
I will be in touch with you when I have something put together which will include information and format on how to write to the minister for immigration. If anyone would like to help me with this I would be grateful. I am still a learner. I will be relentless and will not give up until each member of Vox Congo are heard and have received residency in Australia.
Until then please share this message through your networks as I don’t have contact with everyone who wants to be kept up to date on Vox Congo.
Blessings
Mark Riessen
Martinse Kanda member of Vox Congo (the little shy guy who plays Rhythm and drums) is now a permanent resident in Australia as of today when he received his letter in the mail. This news comes 6 months after Papy received his full residency. This is a huge celebration for Vox Congo and testimony to their faith. I have developed a very close relationship with these 4 guys since they arrived in Melbourne in 2002 and have seen the many heart breaks and disappointments time after time as they we’re told they couldn’t stay, they were told they were non-persons and even their closest advisors told them there was no hope.
Not once did their spirit or faith falter under the pressure. Depression lured many times but their faith and hope lifted them. Martinse and Carmen as well as the rest of the guys have asked me to thankyou all for your tireless support and for never giving up on them. Thankyou for you letters, petitions, friendship, showing up at concerts, your meals, clothing, financial support and a roof over their heads. Often we don’t get to see the impact we can have in lives or hear the good news stories, well here they are, a testimony to your efforts in standing by the neglected and the cast aside in their time of need. Well done.
We ask for your continued prayer and support for Etienne (band leader) and Adolphe (the unforgettable Bass player). I had a series of meetings with them in November last year and they were not traveling well. They miss family, they are feeling lost and confused, yet they still have great hope. I am concerned for my friends and I ask that you please stay with them in prayer and support. After their visit to Adelaide in November I was at a wedding with them in Melbourne and Etienne asked if I could launch an appeal for him and Adolphe to the new immigration minister. Asylum seekers and refugees have a new found hope in our new government who seems to know the meaning of compassion based on recent actions like the release of the prisoners (unlawfully detained refugees) from Naru.
I will be in touch with you when I have something put together which will include information and format on how to write to the minister for immigration. If anyone would like to help me with this I would be grateful. I am still a learner. I will be relentless and will not give up until each member of Vox Congo are heard and have received residency in Australia.
Until then please share this message through your networks as I don’t have contact with everyone who wants to be kept up to date on Vox Congo.
Blessings
Mark Riessen
Where are they now?
I never thought I’d hear myself saying this but, ‘my how times have changed’. I often catch myself watching or reading certain news items or tabloids about the new generation of ‘celebrity’ and the following they have. I hear commentators talk about the influence they have and my jaw drops.
It seems in this day and age anyone can be a celebrity, and for all the wrong reasons. They are then glorified to positions of stature and looked to for leadership on how to live, how to party, what to wear and who to hang out with. It seems the mentors, teachers and leaders of old are few and far between and society has very easily replaced them with celebrity ‘wanna be’s’.
It’s just so hard to fathom what good leadership and mentoring used to be like and how we can continue to duplicate it. When Jesus was a boy he would have sat at the feet of the great mentors and teachers of his day, and like any Jewish boy would have strived with great ambition to be one of those teachers. Someone who taught the law of society, the law which was to bring harmony to community living and bring out the best in each person, a law which each person was expected to meditate upon day and night.
The Rabbi would pick out the best of the best to continue on as his disciples, to follow in the footsteps of the Rabbi and know and understand every aspect of his teaching so that they may one day be like him.
Every single child of the day had a mentor, a teacher, a leader who would invest in them and build them up to one day take on that mantle. Sadly it seems that mentors and teachers like this are becoming thin on the ground. A position which was once vied for and considered a position of great honor, is now considered a burden or an imposition. With the relinquishing of the honor to influence our younger generation with the teachings about God, faith, justice and community living – the vacant spaces have been left to whoever wants to be the next big thing for their own personal gratification. Society has let this happen and young people will let them be their leaders.
Where are they now? Where are those leaders and mentors who would consider the great honor of teaching the next generation of people who will one day be influencers and world changers?
Next time we has a call out for Kidzone leaders, boy’s brigade leaders, youth leaders and the like, I would hope with great expectation that a number of people among us would put up our hands and say, ‘I would consider it an honor’.
I thank those all people who invested themselves in me during my developmental years because without them I would not be a leader.
Shalom
Mark Riessen
It seems in this day and age anyone can be a celebrity, and for all the wrong reasons. They are then glorified to positions of stature and looked to for leadership on how to live, how to party, what to wear and who to hang out with. It seems the mentors, teachers and leaders of old are few and far between and society has very easily replaced them with celebrity ‘wanna be’s’.
It’s just so hard to fathom what good leadership and mentoring used to be like and how we can continue to duplicate it. When Jesus was a boy he would have sat at the feet of the great mentors and teachers of his day, and like any Jewish boy would have strived with great ambition to be one of those teachers. Someone who taught the law of society, the law which was to bring harmony to community living and bring out the best in each person, a law which each person was expected to meditate upon day and night.
The Rabbi would pick out the best of the best to continue on as his disciples, to follow in the footsteps of the Rabbi and know and understand every aspect of his teaching so that they may one day be like him.
Every single child of the day had a mentor, a teacher, a leader who would invest in them and build them up to one day take on that mantle. Sadly it seems that mentors and teachers like this are becoming thin on the ground. A position which was once vied for and considered a position of great honor, is now considered a burden or an imposition. With the relinquishing of the honor to influence our younger generation with the teachings about God, faith, justice and community living – the vacant spaces have been left to whoever wants to be the next big thing for their own personal gratification. Society has let this happen and young people will let them be their leaders.
Where are they now? Where are those leaders and mentors who would consider the great honor of teaching the next generation of people who will one day be influencers and world changers?
Next time we has a call out for Kidzone leaders, boy’s brigade leaders, youth leaders and the like, I would hope with great expectation that a number of people among us would put up our hands and say, ‘I would consider it an honor’.
I thank those all people who invested themselves in me during my developmental years because without them I would not be a leader.
Shalom
Mark Riessen
Uninvited and unexpected
Many people I know are really struggling to come to grips with celebrating this Christmas. Some won’t at all. So I ponder the Christmas story and I try to think of an encouraging or comforting word.
I find it interesting in the two Gospel accounts we have of the telling of the birth of Jesus, that even though the coming of a Messiah is expected in Israel, the Jesus event was still somewhat unexpected in many ways. In Matthew this nearly caused Joseph to break off his relationship with Mary before it started. In Luke Mary was deeply troubled when coming to terms with the news that this was about to happen. Everyone we read of who learnt of Jesus birth had to be prompted in some way. No-one expected such an event.
So this Christmas reminds me of unexpected happenings and not exactly events that bring us joy but rather anxiety, pain, questions and bewilderment. I am also reminded however that the Christ breaks in, in an environment where there is uncertainty and instability, where people wait in hope yet have made no room for his arrival. So Jesus comes anyway, and what is it exactly that we expect? Does Christ come invited or uninvited? Whatever the case is Christ’s presence welcome?
I have found the following reflection from Thomas Merton very helpful.
‘Into this world, this demented inn, in which there is absolutely no room for him at all, Christ comes uninvited.
But because he cannot be at home in it, because he is out of place in it, and yet he must be in it, His place is with those for whom there is no room.
His place is with those who do not belong, who are rejected by power, because they are regarded as weak, those who are discredited, who are denied status of persons, who are tortured, bombed and exterminated.
With those for whom there is no room, Christ is present in this world.’
If you won’t be joining us at Blackwood this Christmas, may your Christmas be filled with the unexpected peace, love and presence of Christ our Savior.
Shalom
Mark Riessen
I find it interesting in the two Gospel accounts we have of the telling of the birth of Jesus, that even though the coming of a Messiah is expected in Israel, the Jesus event was still somewhat unexpected in many ways. In Matthew this nearly caused Joseph to break off his relationship with Mary before it started. In Luke Mary was deeply troubled when coming to terms with the news that this was about to happen. Everyone we read of who learnt of Jesus birth had to be prompted in some way. No-one expected such an event.
So this Christmas reminds me of unexpected happenings and not exactly events that bring us joy but rather anxiety, pain, questions and bewilderment. I am also reminded however that the Christ breaks in, in an environment where there is uncertainty and instability, where people wait in hope yet have made no room for his arrival. So Jesus comes anyway, and what is it exactly that we expect? Does Christ come invited or uninvited? Whatever the case is Christ’s presence welcome?
I have found the following reflection from Thomas Merton very helpful.
‘Into this world, this demented inn, in which there is absolutely no room for him at all, Christ comes uninvited.
But because he cannot be at home in it, because he is out of place in it, and yet he must be in it, His place is with those for whom there is no room.
His place is with those who do not belong, who are rejected by power, because they are regarded as weak, those who are discredited, who are denied status of persons, who are tortured, bombed and exterminated.
With those for whom there is no room, Christ is present in this world.’
If you won’t be joining us at Blackwood this Christmas, may your Christmas be filled with the unexpected peace, love and presence of Christ our Savior.
Shalom
Mark Riessen
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