ENTERTAINMENT THE DEATH OF...

The festive season is coming to an end, and i'm feeling a little depressed...i've enjoyed being at home and relaxing with the family and the thought of work, school, routine, stress...is getting me down.

One thing i've noticed though is that when we have some time off it's so tempting to sit and vegetate in front of the box. We just love being entertained (at least I do), to switch the brain off and allow our senses to be numbed by the the constant flow of dribble that's being poured over us.

The other day we found another 'box' full of pictures/paintings drawn by my son who was then 10 years old. He used crayons and paint to express his imagination.

Unfortunately when we become adults we so often lose the childlike desire to create for ourselves.

I believe that overdosing on 'entertainment' can be the death of our creativity. Mindless entertainment distracts us from creativity and imagination.

So may we find time and energy to cultivate our creative imagination in a culture that's hooked on 'mindless' entertainment.

Incarnation and creativity

Here's a quote from Signs of Emergence by Kester Brewin (rather apt at this Christmas period ):

…like Mary, (we) need to become wombs of the divine, allowing God to fertilize our creativity and give birth to newness. (p 67)

God desires to do something new, ... over 2000 years ago that desire got fleshed out in the belly of Mary and the birth of Jesus, the Christ. Today God continues to yearn for newness... as we allow God to inspire us with creativity He will lead us into a relevant way for post-modern 21 century pilgrims, who seek to be true to God and their culture.

The incarnation is a wonderful act of God becoming one of us, entering into this world and transforming it from the inside...showing us the Way of love, peace and grace.

May God guide us as we evolve into something new and beautiful and creative!!!

photo: Nativity,Canterbury Cathedral

Mystery Girl

Christmas Day Meditation

Christmas Day...

here's a Christmas meditation from franciscan Richard Rohr:

Today, Jesus as Wisdom, Adonai, Root of Jesse, Key, Rising Sun, King, and Emmanuel come together in the celebration of His birth. The day was chosen in the early Roman church to replace the civil festival of the Rebirth of the Sun, which they could discern to be increasing by December 25. So they aligned Jesus with the cosmos itself, which is probably a very good thing for us to do too, instead of merely aligning him with any competitive or tribal notion of religion.

Quoting John 14:6, Jesus presents himself as first of all a Way (skillful means, practice, and lifestyle), and then he becomes our experiencedTruth (for me and through me), which is finally the one great Life (for me and for the world). The sequencing is important! It is a terrible shame that this very verse is the one most often used to preach an intolerant and exclusionary version of Christianity. What Jesus is surely saying in this most misused passage is that if Jesus is “the way, the truth, and the life,” then you and I aren't! Nor are our groups. He is. All our pretenses are utterly undercut.

When people are truly following Jesus, they enjoy a great freedom from themselves—they can laugh at themselves, and let others do the same. They can accept humiliations and not being first or best—because their own reputation is not at stake. They know it is all about the One Eternal Christ Mystery and not about them.

The mature follower of Jesus will probably look more like a holy fool than a pious churchgoer, an uptight schoolmarm, or a too-obvious “saint.” At Jesus' very birth he is fully identified with poverty, homelessness, immigrants, shepherds who were unclean by Temple criteria, and pagan astrologers from some offbeat Oriental religion! This Cosmic Christ did not come to create or maintain any in-groups or superiority systems, but to live and offer to the world a universal truth. Such a Christmas is indeed worthy of being the central holiday and holy day of the entire year.

Happy Christmas

Happy Christmas

Happy New Year

Joyeux Noël

Bonne Année

So, are you ready for Christmas?

I found the following post on Nadia Bolz-Weber's blog 'Sarcastic Lutheran':

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/nadiabolzweber/

Something I wrote in December 2007 when House for All Sinners and Saints was 8 people who met once a month in my living room:

People keep asking me this question: “So, are you ready for Christmas?” What does this mean exactly? It could mean; “So, have you exchanged bits of paper and metal and plastic for other bits of paper and metal and plastic and then wrapped the new paper and metal and plastic in colored paper, marked them with the names of your family members and put them under a tree which has been cut down from where it grows but now stands in your home (or is also comprised of metal and plastic and lives the rest of the year in a box in a room under which it now stands)? And have you also combined food stuffs so that they have no nutritional value but make those who eat them magically become bigger each day that they are ‘getting ready for Christmas’?” Or does the question “So, are you ready for Christmas?” mean “So, are you fully prepared to receive the one who brings God to humans and humans to God by being both human and God?” The answer to the first is “No. I haven’t had time” the answer to the second is “I’m not sure I really can be”

Am I prepared for the coming of the Christ into the world? no. Am I ready? Absolutely. Some things we are never prepared for. They happen anyway. Am I ready to start a new worshipping community? yep. Am I prepared? Not at all. Oh yeah, I’ve read all the books and have completed my course work and have spent endless hours in emerging church communities, I have an amazing group of people who are committed to do this thing together etc, but I’m not prepared because I think prepared implies that I am aware of what will happen and know how to deal with it all. Seriously, I have no idea what will happen, which is as exciting as it is terrifying.

I’m ready for Christmas because after this season of Advent I really need to hear the story of Christ’s birth again. I need to hear about how God enters fully into the muck of our existence and brings new life. I’m ready for that because I know that I need it.

Like a Jester

Contemporary theologian Harvey Cox has written, “Like the jester, Christ defies custom and scorns crowned heads. Like a wandering troubadour, he has no place to lay his head. Like the clown in the circus parade, he satirises existing authority by riding into town replete with regal pageantry when he has no earthly power. Like a minstrel, he frequents dinners and parties. At the end, he is consumed by his enemies in a mocking caricature of royal paraphernalia. He is crucified amidst snickers and taunts with a sign over his head that lampoons his laughable claim.”

Lord, help us live so foolishly for you that we draw onlookers and those who would deride us. And while they watch and mock, change all our hearts that we might learn to laugh at the foolishness this world calls normal and run away with the circus that is real life. Amen.

(taken from Common Prayer website)

God does not love you...

Here's another fabulous quote by Richard Rohr:

"God does not love you because you are good; God loves you because God is good. God does not love you because you are good; you are good because God loves you."

So liberating!!

Will The Real God Please Stand UP

Here's a quote from Richard Rohr:

Your god is whatever you trust to validate you and secure you, and the Gospel is saying, “Will the real God please stand up?”

IKON The Story of God

i can't sleep so i've been reading kester Brewin's blog and clicked onto a link to IKON. i found some posts on the story of god in one tweet. heres's some samples:

@bdk1521

That breathtaking glimpse of beauty when you don’t have your camera – the hawk, the thunderstorm, the leaping orca – that’s God.

@Sarcasticluther

Flesh seems a strange choice of garment for God yet flesh taken and torn then raised and taken again, blessed, broken and given.

@bdk1521

I can’t show you God. I can only point out God’s handiwork after the fact, on those rare occasions when I can discern it myself.

@ellenloudon

in an upside down world God taught me how to stand on my hands.

@alphabetacazi

I used to hold on tight to belief, but I dropped it when I realised my hands were too full to help

@_bindert_

how did you find me here??

@willowwistful

“the God in whom the 19th and 20th centuries came to disbelieve was only invented in the seventeenth century” Alasdair Macintyre

@bdk1521

The inspired act of kindness that transforms hostile strangers into human beings in conversation – that’s God. #smallcupcake

@Kenny_WJ

No matter how hard, I hide, Still I’m found, Wanting.

@carmzmurphy

knowing god used to be about what i knew and how i made that known. these days it’s more about learning how to love and be loved

@Beddard731

In forsaking heaven to embrace earth we found that the kingdom had been here all along

@manofthemoors

“i am”, despite me, he’s been forming me into me, so the me i am is the me the world needs & the me i will be is the me he sees.

see more at http://ikonbelfast.wordpress.com/

Through the Heart

Here's a great quote from James Stephens:

"What the heart feels today, the head will understand tomorrow"

this assumes that information goes through the heart, our emotions

and only afterwards we understand it intellectually.

i know that this is true for myself. i often perceive something and don't really

intellectually understand why, it's just a hunch or call it intuition...

but my perception is about 99% true.

AVENT(ure)

last night was our SatMix AVENT(ure) evening.

It's the most 'traditional' SatMix we've put on yet.

Complete with carols,purple candles, bible readings, a gregorian chant and a responsive reading

which all took place in a waiting room!

We finished the evening with mince pies, goodies and 'vin chaud' (mulled wine)...

Our numbers were swelled with the presence of the youth group who were surprisingly

well behaved and receptive. We had already planned a 'trad' event before we knew the youth were coming. My initial reaction was "damn, the only SatMix with little 'original/flashy creativity' and the youth are here!!" - I have the tendency to try to make events 'relevant' - or in this case 'youth friendly' (this can be a 'trap' in the creative process) the 'relevance' was 'Advent' - waiting in expectancy, in hope of the Saviour...

Hegarty on creativity

yesterday i was teaching some creatives at an Advertising school near Lille. we listened to an interview with John Hegarty, called the blank paper project.
i searched the net and found that he published a book this year 'Hegarty On Advertising' - couldn't resist it - just ordered it.

here's a couple of quotes: "Creativity isn’t about predictability – it has to surprise
and challenge, it has to be daring and yet motivating"...

"Creativity is a manic construction of absurd, unlikely irreverent
thoughts and feelings that somehow, when put together,
change the way we see things. That’s why it’s magic. If you want
to be ordinary then, yes, use a process".