Back in August, 2005 – I jotted down my up to the moment thoughts about that ‘M’ word !
I said it, “is an orientation away from the centre out to the edges... It is decentered – horizontal – seeping into the cracks and crevices of a particular place. It is holiness dwelling in close proximity to the mundane. The ‘M’ word is a movement outwards & downwards into places of injustice & disempowerment... an orientation outwards, towards otherness & difference where we welcome otherness and embrace difference”.
“It is a place of creative space, of possibility where the Spirit of God is most present... a safe place of restoration, of healing & of wholeness... where the possibility of the exceptional is expected”.
“The orientation of the ‘M’ word is about moving away from centers of self-interest, of comfort & self-satisfaction... a deliberate move against the entropy of selfish desire and of greed”. [Quote: “But why should the idea be repellent that humanity be a stench of greediness reaching to the sky ?” - Abraham Heschel] “The ‘M’ word is a movement to places of transformation and participation where God alone is the King !”
I wrote those words from a safe centre. Now that I am living in a more uncomfortable place... I want to know if they these words are true !?!
Friday, June 16, 2006
Elastic Jesus Revisited...
"Just one comment on 'Elastic Jesus'. One thing that struck me about
your blog is the that whilst he is elastic I couldn't help but take the
alternate view that he is in many ways concurrently ROCK SOLID and with
absolute inflexibility.... his love of the father, his compassionate
spirit, his resolute focus on justice, his desire to spend time with
his 'crew' investing in them. How is it that he can maintain elasticity
yet be inflexible?"
CW
I have been thinking about life out on the margins because I have been living in one these past months. I have been particularly interested recently in what lies beyond the boundary of the margin – chaos. It struck me that Jesus walking on the water in the storm was Jesus at ease in a field of chaos. Jesus takes his disciples into that place. There Jesus is neither terrified or diminished. We usually talk about the Jesus who calms the storm – what about the Jesus who creates the storm ?
When Jesus is walking out on the water and the disciples’ see him they think he is ‘a ghost’. A guy I have been reading Jacques Derrida - says there is something interesting about ghosts – he calls them ‘an undecidable’. The figure of the ghost seems to be neither present or absent or it is both present & absent at the same time. There is a tension – a dissonance in that place that breaks open the meaning of things.
Life has many such tensions. The story of Jesus – the ghost - walking on the water is one. Our faith is based on the rock-solid idea that Jesus is the God-man ! Think about that tension – the church fathers argued about how that was possible for nearly 4 centuries. As Derrida says there is an uneasy tension in those kinds of paradoxes and for me that isn’t rock solid – that is dynamic & fluid – expanding and intensifying then contracting again – forming and un-forming – like Galadriel when she is offered the Ring by Froddo in the ‘Fellowship of the Ring’.
When I think about Jesus as the Rock I think about perspective. For example, from a distance Woolworths appears rock solid – institutional, a solid pillar of free market retailing. Yet I wonder if the daily experience of Woolworths up close is more asymmetrical & dynamic – a lot less certain. Jesus called Peter ‘the Rock’ and he was all over the place.
When the disciples respond in terror to Jesus walking on water and in fear to the storm – Jesus’ movement is toward them and His words restore peace - easing their discomfort. Jesus is rock solid & consistent in his expression of the pathos of God – God’s compassion & care ! Yet peace on the waters comes at the expense of stepping away from the experience of Jesus in his Glory !
I have been reading a book by GK Chesterton - ‘Orthodoxy’. He says, “… the more I considered Christianity, the more I found that while it established a rule and order, the chief aim of that order was to give room for good things to run wild.” Give me a Jesus who is rock solid but also give me an Elastic Jesus who expands and intensifies to become a volcano in full vent !
your blog is the that whilst he is elastic I couldn't help but take the
alternate view that he is in many ways concurrently ROCK SOLID and with
absolute inflexibility.... his love of the father, his compassionate
spirit, his resolute focus on justice, his desire to spend time with
his 'crew' investing in them. How is it that he can maintain elasticity
yet be inflexible?"
CW
I have been thinking about life out on the margins because I have been living in one these past months. I have been particularly interested recently in what lies beyond the boundary of the margin – chaos. It struck me that Jesus walking on the water in the storm was Jesus at ease in a field of chaos. Jesus takes his disciples into that place. There Jesus is neither terrified or diminished. We usually talk about the Jesus who calms the storm – what about the Jesus who creates the storm ?
When Jesus is walking out on the water and the disciples’ see him they think he is ‘a ghost’. A guy I have been reading Jacques Derrida - says there is something interesting about ghosts – he calls them ‘an undecidable’. The figure of the ghost seems to be neither present or absent or it is both present & absent at the same time. There is a tension – a dissonance in that place that breaks open the meaning of things.
Life has many such tensions. The story of Jesus – the ghost - walking on the water is one. Our faith is based on the rock-solid idea that Jesus is the God-man ! Think about that tension – the church fathers argued about how that was possible for nearly 4 centuries. As Derrida says there is an uneasy tension in those kinds of paradoxes and for me that isn’t rock solid – that is dynamic & fluid – expanding and intensifying then contracting again – forming and un-forming – like Galadriel when she is offered the Ring by Froddo in the ‘Fellowship of the Ring’.
When I think about Jesus as the Rock I think about perspective. For example, from a distance Woolworths appears rock solid – institutional, a solid pillar of free market retailing. Yet I wonder if the daily experience of Woolworths up close is more asymmetrical & dynamic – a lot less certain. Jesus called Peter ‘the Rock’ and he was all over the place.
When the disciples respond in terror to Jesus walking on water and in fear to the storm – Jesus’ movement is toward them and His words restore peace - easing their discomfort. Jesus is rock solid & consistent in his expression of the pathos of God – God’s compassion & care ! Yet peace on the waters comes at the expense of stepping away from the experience of Jesus in his Glory !
I have been reading a book by GK Chesterton - ‘Orthodoxy’. He says, “… the more I considered Christianity, the more I found that while it established a rule and order, the chief aim of that order was to give room for good things to run wild.” Give me a Jesus who is rock solid but also give me an Elastic Jesus who expands and intensifies to become a volcano in full vent !
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