Amazing still it seems, I'll be 23...

Nope, I didn’t make a mistake in the title and yes, I know I’m already 24, going on 25 (as strange as that seems). What I’m doing, is taking a retrospective look at this last year of my life, during which I was 23 years old. I find it kind of hard, especially when it seems like two weeks ago I was 22 and a lot of time went by without me doing much at all… And the best way for me to do this is by talking about the music I’ve been listening to.

I pity those who don’t appreciate music and its power, because they don’t realise that our very lives have soundtracks to them. That’s probably why it’s so normal for films to have soundtracks… It’s quite something though, when the music you’ve been listening to actually fits with the themes of your life… And I’m not talking about those who listen to depressing music because they want to stay depressed, nor those who listen to last month’s R’n’B star, then go dress and talk like them… More like, the bands I have come across and listened to over and over for the sheer pleasure of their music, displaying lyrics that actually sometimes lay my heart bare...

(Philosophical rant mode for the next 382 words, skip if uninterested)
It’s funny, thinking in the last few days about the way I relate to music, and how I relate music to other people, I realise I have grown up quite a bit: as a teenager I was a music fascist, meaning that I would try to force my music on everyone else, and anyone who didn’t like the same kind of music as I did got smitten by words of condemnation. I remember I used to fear becoming someone who would appreciate other styles of music, like drum’n’bass and lounge chill-out, and stop liking Metal. Moving to England… Anyone who has a strong opinion about anything is bound to get shot down by fierce sarcasm, in the old U of K. It’s harsh, but teaches one not to take themselves too seriously. You grow up from there. Silly comments about my music don’t faze me anymore (but if you do make a comment, prepare your face…), I’ve grown to appreciate a broader variety of music, amongst which, some drum’n’bass and lounge chill-out. I still like Metal, though I listen to a lot less. In fact all my old favourite bands have stayed at the top of my preferences, by far; actually that position has strengthened from listening to different styles… I still believe that my music is the best and that anyone who disagrees doesn’t know what they’re talking about, but I tend not to say that to their face (the operative word being “tend”). I would say I’ve gone from being a “music fascist” to being a “reformed music fascist” (kind of like the way you go from… Better not go there, let the reader understand). I realise I’m a 90s guy! The bands I love the most are the alternative/indie rock bands that came out of the US in the nineties… Of course, it’s not about 90s or not. It’s about the passion in the lyrics, in the music, the seamless marriage of lyrics and music creating metric and linguistic beauty… So if I hear something like that, I’ll like it. I’ll always be made fun of by English people for the music that I listen to, that’s because they produce some of the worst pop and rock… Hmm (abstaining from specificities, for the sake of the peace). I don’t need to defend the bands I love, but I can explain why I do. I keep it for myself now, and if someone is interested, I’ll tell them.
(Phil. Rant mode switching off…)

One of the bands I got totally picked on for listening to non-stop this last year is a Japanese rock band called Asian Kung-Fu Generation. It’s strange that English people are so big on sarcasm and yet fail to understand the sarcasm of others.

I had a lot of time on my hands at some points of last year, being on and off work, and came across them through the anime I watched. Finding more of their music I grew to like them more and more. They’ve made several albums, not two of them sounding alike, demonstrating a real creativity in their music. There was real passion in their rock, something drawing me to them as one is drawn to someone else because of a sense of commonality. Of course, lyrics being so important to me, I had to find their translation. Thank God for internet fans! I found a full-fledged fansite with translations into several languages of their lyrics. It seems that Masafumi-san (lead singer) is always writing about similar things. If Ajikan (diminutive of the band name) had a colour, it would without a doubt be blue, aquatic blue… The theme in so many of the songs in the albums Sol-Fa and Fanclub are relating to being a twentysomething in the middle of the city and still feeling like the only person on the planet, without direction and meaning to one’s life… Almost despair, but never totally, always with a sense of hope for better things in lying ahead… I understood why I liked them so much:

“How many times on a boring day have my dried up memories poked above the surface?”
“How many times at midnight have my dried up memories faintly shone?
Shine on this town…” A rabbit in the backstreet, Fanclub

It may not seem particularly meaningful. But it was to me.

Without wanting to sound too melodramatic, this last year has been one where I have had to meditate a lot on my life; I also sat on my ass a lot... It creates a kind of quiet and complacent depression. Not a good place to be in for too long. You’d want to “erase… and rewrite.” (Rewrite, Sol-Fa)

But… I managed to finish writing songs that had been started years before, and that wasn’t out of depression, as some say that the best music you write is when you’re down; who would want to rehash their depression to others (I mean repeatedly)? I remember my friend Geoff speaking truly prophetically when he said “you want to be creative? Get close to the Creator?” (Not exactly in those words, I’m making him sound cooler than normal.) I was able to use some of the time on my hands to pray and spend time with God, and actually, out of those times, my creativity was stimulated so much… And is now at a different level, as I am again and again being inspired (truly) for new tunes and lyrics, something I believe God has put on my heart…

I tried to stay faithful to what I believed would come during this year, even though this mantle of visionlessness covered me… But I can now say, that is what you have to do if you’re ever in that place. Hold tight to the hopes and promises that you have hidden in your heart and plod along until you’re out.

Another band I used to like, but that actually got a hold of me this year is Jimmy Eat World… They have a knack for making really catchy tunes… Not in a pop type of way, it’s actually quite unique, they can express the sentiment of a song, just make one go “Yeah!” and identify, with a guitar bend (see Crush or Blister from the album Clarity) or a voice harmony (Authority Song); they also fit some cool words into their texts, just catching you off guard... !

And I’ve got to say… I was caught off guard one day recently: I was walking down the street with Jimmy playing in my ears, a great track I hadn’t really heard before, when halfway through, I was left speechless, as I listened to the singer telling me my life for the past year and expressing my sense of hope throughout it…

“Amazing still it seems, I’ll be 23…
I won’t always love what I’ll never have,
I won’t always live in my regret.

You’ll sit alone forever,
If you wait for the right time
What are you hoping for?
I’m here, I’m now, I’m ready,
Holding on tight, don’t give away the end,
One thing that stays mine!” 23, Futures

How could he know?... I lived in regret, wanting what I didn’t have, what seemed so out of reach! Sitting on my couch waiting, hoping, holding on. So often I wanted to know how it was going to end, but the resolution was so amazing, so shocking, I’m glad I didn’t know, because that made it all the more glorious! I caught the vision for my life again, and ran with it! The depths of my heart roar like a lion for truth, that is my life’s battle. I still don’t know the end, but it’s exciting… However, I have an inkling.

In November, the Red Star EP came out, foreshadowing the release of Third Eye Blind’s next album in 2009, Ursa Major. This is something 3eB fans have been waiting for, for over 2 years! I heard the tracks and flipped! (www.myspace.com/thirdeyeblind)... Say what you want, NO ONE writes lyrics like Stephan Jenkins. The quality of the musical production, the lyrical choices and disposition, are just breathtaking. Another reminder of the fact that good things are worth waiting for...

Another good thing that was worth waiting for is my sister’s album: Interprétation (by Eli Natali, www.myspace.com/elinatali) came out this month and I’ve just been listening to it over and over. Walking down the street (again) at one point I cried out “for goodness’ sake, Lisa! How can you write such good lyrics!?”

I think I’ll review them individually in a later post, but I just wanted to mention them to say that I believe this next year of 2009 is holding stuff which I’ve been expecting for a long time and it will spur me on into further musical endeavours (amongst others), as I follow in the steps of those who inspire me. (Even K’s Choice might release a new album this year!)
... And I wish the same for you all in this next year of 2009. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I didn’t get a chance to mention him up until now, but another guy who is just phenomenal, and doesn’t need anyone to interpret his thoughts: Cosmo Jarvis (I don’t know whether that’s his real name), a 19 year-old kid from Devon. Just go on his myspace page (www.myspace.com/cosmojarvis), you’ll see what I mean.

So, I don’t know if it came across, but our lives have soundtracks, and though the music we listen to dips in and out of it, I have a giant theme, accompanying me through everything. It’s called Grace. It’s composed by Jesus. (... www.myspace.com/Jesus... not really, it'll take you to a latino guy's page.)

(Photo courtesy of Jeanne Harper, all rights reserved)

Theology of Pornography

This e-booklet is really great and helpful for all you people out there with questions or struggles. It's quite raw and shocking, with some eye-opening stuff, but truly frank; if you read it while being honest with yourself, you won't be shocked but blessed.Here's the link:

http://relit.org/porn_again_christian/
Shaba, keep it real!

Joey

I love Tim Buckley

He says what is needed.

More of this @ www.ctrlaltdel-online.com

Life in a new place

Here I am, almost a month into my new experience of life in Geneva. As I expected, it is extremely different to what I lived over six years ago, when I lived here with my family. What’s more, it’s also quite different to my first year experience when I moved to Canterbury exactly six years ago, something one would expect when moving from a small city to an international centre that is several times the size of the first, in population, economy and horizontal as well as vertical development. The most important thing though, is that I am lacking nothing: I have a great house, a great course, great food on the table and great support from family and friends. God really provides all things.

Being something of a theologian, I have to bring everything back to God, sorry for those of you who don’t tend to do that, and at the risk of contradicting the fundamentalists, atheists, agnostics and Arj Barker*, I have to see God’s sense of humour in one aspect of my present situation… My inner workings are pretty weird, so sorry for leaking some of that out to you here, but recently I actually started worrying whether I had become a sexist; not in belief, which contrary to what some think doesn’t leave any place for sexism (I'm talking about Biblical theology), but in practice. See, about 5, 6 years ago, most of my friends were women. I don’t know why, maybe because guys are such jerks, but anyway, I realised how unhealthy it was for me to have all these female friends who would give me some chocolate, say “ooh…” and watch Friends with me whenever I was feeling down and went to find some good guys to hang out with, which I did, and have never looked back since, I mean, I love hanging out with dudes - not jerks - in fact, I’m so happy that God’s provision has gone as far as giving me some friends to watch the Ultimate Fighting Championship** with, here in Switzerland, where already in England hardly anyone had heard of it! I love being a guy! And I love growing as a guy, learning to become more of a man, not in the macho way, which I find fun to promote, but only as a joke. Anyway, I guess that I’ve landed on the complete other end of the spectrum and I started thinking recently: “Hmm, do I treat, or unconsciously think of women as less important, intelligent etc. than men?”, which I think is a good sign, because if I’m worried about it, there are great chances that I’m not a sexist. Truth is, I’ve spent so many years with so few female friends that I think I’ve forgotten how to relate to women in a real way. This also may come from the fact that many English girls are so incredibly closed and guarded against guys that it has made it extremely difficult to strike up any real conversations with them in my time out there. Russell Peters had it right, and I know others who would agree, when he said “What have the English men done to the English women? Whatever it is, it’s ruined it for the rest of us!"***

Anyway, what is so funny about that that you have to bring God into it? It’s not funny at all; oh, but it is, when you walk into my seminar classrooms and lecture halls, and all you see are… Women. Over the two years of Master’s students in my course, there are between 6-8 guys, amongst maybe 80 women. But in my department and year, I believe there’s only one: moi. Watch your thoughts! Joey: “Hmm, I’m worried I may have become sexist, I’m not really sure how to relate to women”. God: “Ok, here’s a class full of women, knock yourself out! It’ll definitely build character!” The Lord does work in hilarious ways. Now, I’m not about to put the “trans” back into “translation” just to fit in, but I am kind of failing to fit “bad-ass macho man” into the job description, even though I walk into class with my shaved head and goatee, muscles rippling etc. In the end, I’m just a nice guy and it’s hard to fool people otherwise. What I have concluded through this experience is that women are definitely more intelligent than men, since they all seem to go for languages, when so many guys shy away from such a glorious discipline ;)

In church, it’s the same thing, I’ve met an overwhelming amount of girls, which no doubt will make my dad happy, since I’m sure he’d like to eventually meet a woman I’m actually seeing, which, you know, I’d like to meet a girl I’m seeing as well, but hey, good things are worth waiting for, and once again, that’s something I’m having to exercise faith for. Speaking of faith and theology, God is hilariously challenging the nitpick in me, getting me to formulate my thoughts beyond the blur of “huhhhh…” at times, and teaching me to pick my battles, and words, carefully, because I tend to overreact to certain things. I miss a lot of my friends in Canterbury, I love them deeply, but I am so happy to be here, knowing and seeing already how God is shaping my character, picking out the ugly bits of me and replacing them with Grace.

*****************

*Who some time ago debated in a rather humorous way against the question “Does God have a sense of humour?” which you can find on YouTube.

**And the last one was, oh so sweet! Seeing Dan Henderson and Richard Franklin fight so well among others…

***In another stand-up show that you can find on YouTube.

John 6

John 6

Unless otherwise mentioned, and it's never mentioned, all quotations that are biblical come from the ESV (that's English Standard Only Accurate Version) translation of the bible... Into English.

It's probably best you get your bibles to follow this, otherwise you're not going to know what I'm talking about. In my bible, John 6 is right after John 5. And before John 7.

(Those who don't have one at hand can go straight on to http://www.biblegateway.com/ for multiple translations in multiple languages.)

Let's get started!

6:1-15 This passage is interesting, obviously it is a famous story, but understanding its implications really shocks. Verse 14 helps us understand these implications:

The people realise that Jesus is the Prophet! This is the prophet with a capital P (though the Greek had no capitals probably, but the article helps us understand the "one-of-a-kind"ness of this prophet) spoken of by Moses in Deuteronomy 18. Though there had been many prophets since Moses, there was always an expectation of a prophet of the same calibre of Moses who would be a Messiah. Here, the people realise Jesus is this Prophet because of the sign he performs: a great crowd is hungry and in a desert place, and he is able to feed them with multiple bread and fish; this is like the manna that Moses prayed for and God sent, except that it is greater: it is barley bread and fish, much nicer :) and on top of that, they don't have to wait until morning to pick it up from the ground, it comes straight from the hands of Jesus! He is showing that not only he is a prophet like Moses, but he is a prophet greater than Moses! On top of that, he is showing that he is God, because though he prays to the Father, the food comes from him! On top of that, it is an abundant meal, pointing to the beginning of the season of the new covenant, an era of abundance in God, of Grace...

What we see then, is that in Jesus' ministry, what he was doing all the time was showing through spoken parables, acted parables, and outright fulfilment of prophecy who he is! It seems that everything he does in the gospels, whether intentionally or not, he is just revealing that he is the Messiah and telling people what has happened and what is about to happen, fulfilling ancient prophecy and then fulfilling prophecy that he speaks himself about himself (namely, his death, resurrection and ascension)!

The amazing thing is that he only does this after thirty years of hard work in carpentry, to sustain his family. He has already shown his character... He has been obedient in all things, endured life as a normal person, living for three decades among sinners and never sinning, leading his family since the death of Joseph (since he was the oldest son), and only then does he bring revelation and start his ministry... That is humbling, to think that even Jesus did not start his outward ministry until he was 30... He isn't just a guy who has great gifting but a lacking character! Praise Jesus, because he is all that he says he is and shows no inconsistency in any aspect of his life.

His ministry therefore is all about declaring who he is to Israel, and his disciples' ministry is about telling the world who Jesus is! That is the reason why we contextualise the gospel and preach the Bible, always telling people who Jesus is, whether they already know him or not! (In discipleship and in evangelism) We imitate him and take it further in a sense, because we don't need to go on the cross, so we spend the rest of the time building church, evangelising and discipling.

Another thing is that we see that Jesus is into megachurch! A crowd of thousands, he has no problem teaching them and catering for them! We see this fulfilled properly in Acts, where there are the crowds meeting to hear apostolic preaching, then meet in small groups in homes. Anyway, that goes beyond this passage!...

6:22-59 Following on the feeding of the Five Thousand and the walking on water, the atmosphere of this passage changes as Jesus turns up the theological temperature in his speaking and in response his hearers turn on the hostility, right after an awesome demonstration of his power!

Even though these people were caught up in a sense of wonder, which we see from 6:2, then because of his feeding them, and even mystery, wondering how he got from one side of the sea of Galilee (which was a lake, but still pretty big) to the other without a boat, which would have taken him about 35km round the lake, when actually he walked across, then seemingly teleported (6:21) to Capernaum Pier...

There seems to be a big divide concerning what the people believe the Messiah should be and the way Jesus thinks of his role, purpose and who he is... The immediate reaction of the people upon realising that Jesus is the Prophet is to make him the king in order to establish the Kingdom of Israel again (v.15); heavily influenced by zealot teaching. Then they ask him what works they should do to honour God (v.28); they show the influence of the Pharisees here, always talking about works. Jesus probably frustrated them, because he was different from what they were expecting and he just asked them to put their trust in him...

And here's the weird thing: in verse 14 it seems that many recognised Jesus to be the Prophet like Moses because of the sign he performed, but suddenly, in verse 30, they speak as if it had never happened. "What sign to you do? We want a sign like the manna!" I can just imagine Jesus' jaw dropping hearing that comment. If he was short tempered, he would probably have called them a bunch of idiots, I mean, every bible commentator in 2000 years will know that the feeding of the 5000 refers to Jesus imitating Moses! Of course, his character is perfect, so he doesn't do that, instead encourages them to look back at what happened and see that he is the one who gave them the bread and indeed, he is the bread sent from God vv.32-35 and they should trust in him. He encourages them, but he also uses rather ambiguous language, suggesting that he doesn't mind people misunderstanding what he is saying, because those whom the Father gives him, will come (v.37). It is also ambiguous for us theologically, because as in other passages of Scripture (like in Paul's writings), Jesus talks about the Father giving him people (so chosen and predestined, see v.37 & 39) and then also about people looking to him and believing (vv.40). He says "whoever believes has eternal life" (v.47) right after saying "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him" (v.44). It's confusing, but it talks about God's absolute and unquestionable Sovereignty in salvation, somehow including our personal, conscious, intelligent response...

But at the same time, the Jews were just showing their bad attitude, by choosing not to understand his words, which were clearly figurative (..."How can this man give us his flesh to eat?", v.52)
Here, he is not talking about communion as much as communion talks about this; what he is saying is that his perfection, his holiness, people will have to eat and drink it, trust him, believe him if they want to be saved. He is saying that there is no work they can do to do God's will (v.28), only believe in him who does it, so that they may be included into that righteousness. They need to say I belong to Jesus. The Lord's Supper is about sharing in Jesus' sacrifice, his flesh punished replacing ours, his blood flowing to cleanse ours, about saying, I'm at the table with Jesus, I'm in his family, that's where I belong, I belong to him!

He is also saying some amazing things, if you think about it; not only that he is greater than Moses and the Son of God (vv.32-33), but that the bread he has to give them is greater than that of the desert time...! (vv. 35, 49-51) He is saying that he has a better covenant, a better relationship to establish than the one of Moses, a greater grace from God!!!

And then he explains what he came to do, so that the original concept of the Jews is challenged: "And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh" (v.51). He is alluding to his sacrifice. And he explains how much greater this grace is: Eternal life!... Following D.A. Carson's thinking on Jesus' prayer in John 17, here we see Jesus' purpose in coming in the world: verse 57: "As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me."
That verse seems very ambiguous, but if we explore it in depth there is such power within it! "I live because of the Father"... What could that mean? Is he saying that he is created? That he is in some way dependent on another being for sustenance? No. The reason he lives is for the Father; the reason he came to live in human form is for the Father, his eternal aim and objective is FOR the Father, to honour the Father, to glorify the Father. Jesus lives because there is a God, and Jesus is that God, and so is the Father and his life is about loving God; eternal life is about enjoying perfect relationship of glory, honour, love forever, just like God does within himself. The Father and Jesus' purpose in sending him/coming to earth is to glorify and honour each other, continuing their perfect relationship, but with the other aim of revealing this relationship, this love to men and welcome them into this, which is eternal life! And "whoever feeds of this bread will live forever" (v.58): whoever believes in Jesus, feeds on his words, on his truth, whoever gives himself, says "I belong to Jesus" they will also "live because of me."(v.57) Their life will become one of eternal love and glorifying someone else, namely Jesus, just like Jesus eternally loves and glorifies the Father. We get included into this awesome family!

This passage, as glorious as it is in the truths it uncovers, is a really powerful anticlimax to the previous one: as we see his might and power displayed and people being fed, we see the same people walking away because they didn't like what he had to say and didn't realise they needed to change, not him.
It is all the more telling about the state of the Jewish nation, when just two chapters before a whole village of hated, heretical Samaritans believed in him, and they only had the Samaritan Pentateuch (their Scriptures) to go by, while the Jews who even had the Prophets to read and check didn't accept him. All this goes to show that Jesus was right from the start not to entrust himself to these men, "for he himself knew what was in man." (John 2:25) The chapter shows how much man is inconstant and how even those who are supposed to understand the things of God, the religious, who seek righteousness, can completely miss the point: it's not you who finds Jesus and understands him, it's him who finds and understands you.

6:60-71 Interestingly, after that, he does give some final explanation to those still listening: I'm speaking about spiritual things. "The flesh is of no avail" (v.63). Are you offended? Are you going to stay offended if you see me in my full glory, ascended and mighty, but judge you for not believing in me? I think that's the sense of what he's saying. In a humorous way: "You're offended by this? Well, maybe I should just get outta here and cruise on back up to heaven, blazing with glory..."
And indeed, after this, many people leave him... But it wasn't a failure: he sifted the wheat from the chaff! Those who truly believed from those who were just in it for a fad.

It is so easy to miss the depth and power of a verse...: "The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life"(v.63). The very words spoken by Jesus ARE spirit and life! He is expressing spiritual truths in physical terms so that unspiritual people may understand, though many don't, but this is much deeper than intellectual understanding. Words contain so much power in the Bible, but particularly John reveals something about the power of words in his Christology, starting from the beginning: Jesus is the Word (1:1). "All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men." (3-4) As the Word of God, Jesus created all things, he holds in himself life which he can impart to others...
Expressing things of the spirit in words is a life-giving action... And we have received the words of Jesus and received his life and his Spirit, if we have believed in him. "For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me."(17:8)
Our job is very simple. Speak the words that Jesus spoke, explain in human terms the truths of God, hoping that others hear and believe... That is how Jesus did it, even though many did not believe. In knowing the truths, the words of Jesus, and living in them and speaking them, we will have his joy in obeying the Father fulfilled in ourselves... (17:11-13) That is just awesome... Words can only attempt to express the beauty of this truth.

Back to the dialogue:
... The disciples understood: "You have the words of eternal life!" (v.68) Peter says, "We get it, you're God, you're the one who gives life, I understood your talk just now, and I'm going to apply it to my life, right now, by staying by your side..." He calls him "the Holy One of God". Now, in the Old Testament, the only one who is the Holy One is YHWH (other "holy ones" - without "the" juxtaposed - mentioned would be the Messiah - which is interesting - in a couple of prophetic Psalms, and angelic beings, mentioned in Daniel)... Isaiah calls him the Holy one of Israel; the only other times when "The Holy One of God" is mentioned is with the demonised man who calls Jesus that! (Mark 1:24, Luke 4:34) So Jesus is God, sent from God! It is a brilliant theological statement! And as an aside, it confirms that even the demons believe that there is one God, and shudder (James 2:19). I love the internal consistency of the Bible!

Christianity in the World, part 3

Christianity in the world, part 3: Discipline & Punishment (31/05/08 – 20/08/08)

Some of you guys aren’t going to like this… *Groan*

Christians should be stewards of God’s Word and teach it faithfully. Some of the greatest tragedies of intellect and of human lives in history have occurred because those who were supposed to be stewards taught wrong doctrine, twisting Scripture, the effects of which sin being visible and continuous, still today… When truths of God’s character and words are distorted, the two usual responses in people are the following: superstitious devotion and over-reactionary rejection, neither of which are desirable; let me explain: the superstitious devotion happens in the religious people who think they can please God by following rules, and the wrong teaching taught becomes assumed doctrine; the rejection of the teaching usually happens after seeing the devastating effects on people’s lives that this religious behaviour has and overreacts by rejecting not just the bad teaching, but also anything from the Bible, because glorious truth was being hidden by false doctrine. These two reactions can be seen as the opposing camps of conservatism and liberalism, both of which have messed up attitudes and values.

One value whose core is being completely missed is that of discipline in the family: there are people in the UK lobbying against parents smacking children, trying to get it classed as a penal offense. These people must’ve had some very angry parents, because they believe that when a parent smacks a child, it is always out of unreasonable anger, in fact, in the ads they produce against smacking, the mum is portrayed as a frustrated and exhausted mother who just wants her child to shut up and suddenly jumps in the face of the camera like an enraged velociraptor, letting out the beast within. Now, I don’t doubt that some parents strike their kids unnecessarily, but to be honest with you, the majority shows the opposite. Nowadays in the UK there is a culture of minding one’s own business and indifference towards things that might be troublesome, to the point where this has seeped into the family and parents don’t know how to discipline their own children, to set proper boundaries. The result is that at home and in school, kids do what they want and while parents don’t do anything, teachers can’t do anything, because the laws of the government have robbed them of their disciplinary power, and the students have no concept of authority.

Indeed, the concept of authority is the one in question here: who has the authority to judge an action as right or wrong? If people think that punishment is an unreasoned reaction, of course they will denounce it. But they’re missing the point: good parents who love their children must discipline them, must punish them, to show them that what they did is wrong and that there are consequences for disobedience. Loving parents will reason about what punishment to administer in order that their child will not become spoilt and understand why what he did was wrong. The opposite of loving parents are indifferent ones… But enough of social polemics, that’s not the purpose of this paper.

With a messed up concept of the reason for discipline and punishment, people will naturally misunderstand the character of the originator of such a teaching, e.g. God. God is into discipline; he knows that our natural selves are selfish and lacking in character and for our own good, he tries us so we can grow, learn, become stronger, taller, wiser, more loving and compassionate, more trusting in him. The author of Hebrews puts it better than I ever could:

And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?

"My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,

nor be weary when reproved by him.

For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,

and chastises every son whom he receives."
It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. (Hebrews 12:5-11, quoting Proverbs 3:11-12)

One mustn’t confuse discipline and judgement; although the two share a lot and can be used interchangeably sometimes, there is a clear and immense difference between the discipline to a child and the judgement of a criminal!

No matter how much society gets messed up, there is still an inner sense that there are certain things which go beyond the line of what is wrong, even though the worldview of the postmodern person doesn’t allow for them to believe in right and wrong, since they should be tolerant of everyone, but anyway, that only goes as far as the first person who disagrees with them.* Why do we have an inner morality, no matter how hard we try to kick it out of our fabric? I believe it is because the God who created us is moral and believes in right and wrong. In fact, God is into judging evil! He hates far more than we do all the horrible, heinous, perverted, tragic actions that occur in this world, but he actually has the power and authority to judge them righteously. “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”(Romans 12:19) Judgement is his to make, for he is sinless and he is the Creator, therefore people who wish to judge but are in no authority have nothing to say. That is the reason why each country has a legal and judicial system: so that flawed men can attempt to make right judgements, based on the laws in place and the authority conferred to them by another… The only reason why we are not consumed by his wrath is that he is also a compassionate and merciful God and is patiently waiting, allowing time for more people to repent. (Romans 2:4)

And people long for forgiveness as well as the judging of the evil that occurs. All people want to be forgiven for the mistakes they have made, the horrible things they have thought, said and done which caused pain to their friends, family, others and themselves. We desire mercy, we want acceptance after screwing up. Why do we even hope for it? Maybe God has put inside us that longing for someone who could forgive sins… Maybe that’s why people came to Jesus, weeping between sorrow and joy, for the things they had done and the fact that right there was one who could bring them peace. (cf. Luke 7:36-50) Maybe that’s why a parent who sees their child is sincerely asking for forgiveness after having disobeyed will withhold punishment, acting in mercy and graciously embracing them, because that’s what God does.

In fact, God somehow majestically fulfils both the longing for judgement of what is wrong as well as the longing for forgiveness and acceptance of the repentant, fulfils both the roles of the judge and of the loving father, in two main, and massive ways.

Jesus… YHWH Yeshuah: I AM Saves. In the same book of Hebrews, it says that Jesus, the one perfect and sinless man who ever walked the earth was still nonetheless disciplined and put to the test, in order to show that he indeed shared in every difficulty that men and women have to endure, also making him the perfect person to make a way for man to be reconciled to God, he himself being both totally man and totally God (Hebrews 5:7-10, this is a running theme throughout Hebrews, see 6:16-20, 7:23-28, 9:23-28).Jesus’ sacrifice was a priestly act, where he stood in between man and God and represented each party to the other one, as a perfect mediator; and here’s what happened: the Father, in total agreement with the Son, poured out his wrath on Jesus as if Jesus were all the sinful people in history, who deserve to be punished. Jesus’ death was a sacrifice, a pure and perfect one at that, which God consumed unto death, satisfying the required justice of God, but at the same time, beautifully showing God’s mercy to all by NOT consuming them, withholding the punishment they deserved and instead punishing his Son, who knew no sin, with the consequences of sin. The Cross is this amazing place and event where God’s justice and mercy come spectacularly and masterfully together, in a completely unique way, unprecedented, unrepeated since then and inimitable for the rest of history!

At the end of history, however, there will be another phenomenal, unique and terrible demonstration of the utter mercy, grace, as well as justice and anger at sin that God embodies. God doesn’t take lightly the evil in the world, as previously mentioned, and for those who have accepted Jesus’ sacrifice and lordship over their lives, the punishment has been lifted, the wrath satisfied, but there will be a time when God’s patience towards the rest of man’s unrighteousness ends and Jesus comes with the righteous judgement of the evil of all time. At that time, there will be a glorious acceptance into the Kingdom for those having known and accepted Jesus’ righteousness to cover their sin, and his punishment to pay for theirs, but at the same time a frightening judgement towards those who persisted in sin through their life, not acknowledging the authority of God over their own lives and choosing to be their own god or to worship other gods apart from the true one. That will be the righteous outcome of history, as it is depicted in John’s Revelation... No one will be able to tell God, to tell Jesus, that he isn’t fair, as he will still bear the same scars while he declares the verdicts. And thank God that he is just. I wouldn’t want to worship a God that doesn’t punish sin and evil. And thank him that he is forgiving, otherwise no one would escape his judgement. And thank Him that he’s loving, because otherwise, that’d be a pretty difficult God to please. And thank Him that he’s sovereign, because I need a God that’s mighty to save me from my problems, my enemies, and myself. And thank Him finally, that he finds a way to reconcile all those attributes while I struggle to understand how he works them all together.

My sins are forgiven. My guilt is gone! Honestly. His sacrifice has yielded fruit. I am loved like no other, and this love is patiently changing me to become a better man… I had some great time with God last night, and as I chatted to him I marvelled at the way he turned this whole year round for me, where wasted time has somehow borne fruit, my wrong thinking has been made right and my visionless outlook has been spurred on into great vision for the future. I haven’t got it all together, but I know that he does and he’ll help me work it out as I go along faithfully. His discipline has yielded fruit.

*****

* The postmodern thinking is actually to varying degrees bending people's natural perception of things, coming against what people see as plain normal: I recently met someone who told me they believed that prisons shouldn't exist. When I asked them how else one would punish crime they didn't really answer me, just alluded to the fact that all is relative and judgement is not ours to make... While to some degrees I would say that the prisons that exist aren't necessarily the best places to reform criminals, I don't think this person’s thinking (nor the criminals’) was as civically minded as they thought it was. And thankfully, the government thinks so too. This matter however, is an interesting one, on which I want to stop for a moment. As I said, this thinking bends our natural perception of things, and this extreme happens when one takes all the way the belief that there is no moral basis, no truth and that people should do whatever makes them feel good, believe whatever they want to believe (essentially the foundations of postmodern life). It is also going all the way in the nowadays common thinking that talks about people’s “rights”: “I have the right to do this, the right to do that”, basically the right to sin and not ever face the consequences of my sin. This has already been seen in the liberalising of abortion to frightening degrees. Such thinking always springs out of the self, even if those advocating it genuinely believe they are doing it to help others. They never talk about responsibilities, always rights. In a sense it could be seen as a solidarity towards all those who want to sin, just like me, or, a collective effort of legislation change created by people all involved with self interest in doing something only they want to do (which of course is a tautology, I mean, how often do people lobby for things they don’t want to do? How many people are pro liberalising cannabis who don’t smoke it? From a positive point of view of the argument, real socialists should want to pay taxes, provided that ensured that the public services functioned well). The truth is, the theoretical basis for this thinking is rooted first in the desires of the person and secondly the intellect. It stops right where suddenly someone is wronged and desires justice or vengeance for this terrible sin against them. It doesn’t always work in practice…
In conclusion to this appendix, this kind of thinking, which is founded in postmodern thought, is essentially an outworking of Romans 1 that talks about the unrighteousness of men “who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth” (v.18) and who, “claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.” (vv.22-23) Christians who elevate the supremacy of Jesus above all things in the world, live and think differently from this, showing men and women everywhere a higher calling and greater way of living.

Like in a movie (summer rain)

15/08/2008

Fretting leaves flicker in freeze-frame in the furious fervour of the fanciful wind.
Buckets of rain are flushed down so suddenly it seems fake, then it stops.
Drops fall on us, curiously under a bright sky.
These are the paradoxical inconsistencies involved in reconciling “summer” and “Britain”.

Save me from Christian facebook groups!!!

I'm infuriated! Why must people create and/or join facebook groups that are so useless!? I don't think this post is ever going to stop idiotic groups from being created or people from joining them, but I need an outlet for my frustration. Ironically, as my brother pointed out, I'm complaining about complainers, but hopefully I'll get away with it by making some sense in my argumentation.

A few months ago I remember being invited to a group called "let's see if we can find 1,000,000 Christians on facebook" and another one called something like "spread the word, Jesus, the saviour of the world" with gospel presentations in them. The worst thing is that I saw some of my friends join those groups!!! What on earth is a group that has a few Christians on them going to do for the gospel cause??? The most recent one, "facebook MUST ban the group entitled: F... Jesus Christ" is even more stupid and insulting to my intelligence and principles. Why on earth should facebook, a non-Christian service provider ban a group of unbelievers from writing their foolish statements? Why should facebook, provider of a free service, listen to what anyone has to say about their programme, since these people aren't paying for anything at all (thinking about the group entitled something along the lines of "petition to make facebook ban adding friends to applications")! With all the amount of trash that's online, it would be lovely if it weren't there, but telling people they can't say stuff like that is certainly not going to do anything to win them over to Christ! The group itself was invoking articles of British laws against racism and religious offenses (which is weird, since facebook is American to start with), saying it is wrong for anyone to say something bad against someone else's religion... What on earth? Other people may stoop to these petty levels, but Christians know that we are promised persecution and insults by Jesus himself, why on earth should we complain when people discriminate against us??? How was the early church created? Out of persecution! We should answer with intelligent responses, not childish tale-telling.

On top of that, we believe in freedom of speech! Why should we expect people not to say what they wish to say, even if it is trash, when we want people to hear what we have to say? What's more, that kind of title, e.g. "F... JC" is clearly not an intellectual one, the guys just thought it would be funny, which granted, it's not, but I think Jesus doesn't need people to stand up for him in the playground, he's a big boy. What he wants is people to stand up for him in the courtrooms, in the lecture halls, in the real battlefields of the faith!

And I'm sorry to say, but at the same time, glad, that the internet is not one of them, in most cases. Chat forums, facebook groups, those are places where foolish and ignorant people can, with no accountability, vent their anger, uninformed thoughts and frustrations. How is getting loads of Christians on one group going to save anyone? I think it's actually counter-productive to spreading the gospel: how is anyone going to have an intelligent and mind-changing debate in one of these virtual places? Just take a look at the list of posts on the group I'm talking about! There are the racists, the over-sensitive prigs, the zealous followers, the zealous atheists, throwing insulting, self-righteous comments and ungratious internet grenades to each other, taking turns... Which ends up making them more frustrated and hurt, since words do hurt.Finally, someone in that stream of messages said something that made lots of sense, not that I agree with everything he says on this or other of his posts:

"Other than the name, there is nothing wrong with the group and even more wrong with this group. They may say what they wish. It's funny that more people have joined this group than the group in question, so you are making a mountain out of a molehill. You've given them more publicity than they deserved.They say something you disagree with, so you wish to ban them. Their group shows no similar desire to ban you or your groups. Live and let live.I'm off to join them as well. Call it a protest vote."

There's my case... I edit this note singing: "I lay my life down at your feet, cause you're the only one I need... One way, Jesus, you're the only one that I could live for."

Jude

20 Juin 2008

So, I’ve experienced my first few days with my nephew… It’s pretty surreal. So surreal in fact that I don’t take it in all the time and I have moments of realisation during the day where my brain actually understands that this cute little thing that is just under 60cm long and maybe 5kgs in weight is a full-fledged, brand new human being. He is just about seven weeks old, I think that’s the youngest baby I have ever handled, and the things that amaze me about him are the things that come to him naturally: he breathes… No one told him how to do that, but he has picked up that habit and keeps it going; he also loves his mum’s milk and attaches himself to her breast automatically (it was a little weird at first, but since she’s my sister, I can handle it); he swallows what he eats, doesn’t spit it out. These things are part of his instincts… He has blue eyes (for the moment), an inquisitive and very funny face, and twenty tiny digits on his hands and feet. It’s the detail that’s amazing. He’s generally very happy, but even when he cries he looks so sweet, with his cute little pout. The world revolves around him, whatever room he’s in, all eyes are on him. I find it hard not to look at him when he’s in the room, he’s just too gorgeous. He’s so fragile and needy… That’s the thing that makes me fearful and blows my mind the most: he was created totally dependent on his parents. Every time I handle him I’m afraid of breaking him like a porcelain doll, so I am most careful. Seeing his parents love him is a beautiful thing; my sister and bro’s hearts are melted when they talk to him, look at him, think about him… And so is mine. I’m overwhelmed by this new creation. I’m shocked at how God so carefully knit this human being into life and his effect on everyone around him, where old and young men will sing songs to him, old and young women want to play with him, and he doesn’t get bored of gesticulating, watching, lying down, sleeping, breast-feeding, burping, pooping, having his nappy changed (he loves that in fact) and starting over again.

Prophetic Fields

Prophetic Fields, 23rd May 2008

God has taken the habit of using the fields in the back of Wincheap to speak to me... I guess those are the times when I’m most attentive and he jumps in while I’m still listening! Last year, I remember him showing me, through the progression of the stages of growth and harvest, the way in which he is always operating, even when there doesn’t seem to be anything happening for long periods of time, and that is eventually shown in the quantity and quality of the fruit produced, be it fair-coloured hills covered in grain or red, juicy apples that finally get harvested to be put to use.

As I was running yesterday, I noticed that out of the ground that has been looking so arid for the past weeks had sprouted leaves that looked like they might be corn plants, not that I’m a farmer or anything, so I wouldn’t actually know... That resonated in my mind and in my heart, felt like God was saying that fruit is going to come after this period of aridity in my spiritual life... And I am seeing some fruit of his word spoken in my life already, which is really exciting. But I need to be more excited, less apathetic, more ambitious for seeing his promises come to fruition. God doesn’t know how to make small plans, everything works towards his greater plan, to which I have the privilege, along with many others, of being a part.

Poetry on a run

01/03/2008

Waves of blades flutter in ripples across the field
As if the wind were the strings of a bow
Playing gently upon the instrument below,
The music being made, inaudible to me,
but rather than a melody I'd hear, one that I see.

The Right Fight

The Right Fight, 24.02.2008


In over five years living in Canterbury, I have heard many a story about street thugs, but have never actually had to really face-off with any of them, until last Thursday night. This story is amazing to me, and if you would indulge me, I will tell it right here.


I had had a long day: we had taken a group of students on a day trip to Oxford, leaving around 8.15a.m, and due to traffic, we didn't get back to Canterbury until 8p.m. This meant that it was late and everyone was tired, but the students needed to be walked home by their group leaders (since they were twelve-year-old Chinese kids).
I was debating on whether to go to cell group or not, since I was already late upon arrival in Canters, but for some reason, I decided I'd go - passing through Tesco, since I had no food at home – and I started making my way up St. Martin's Hill, where I used to live. As I walked up, I saw a group of my students ahead; my immediate reaction was to think “Oh, no, let's slow down, I'm too tired to start talking to them and on top of that, we're going in the same direction...” (just to show you what a great guy I am), but as I started thinking that, I saw a group of big guys walk through them and push them in the street, a dangerous road at that. My pace quickened as I felt what I can only describe as my first experience of “righteous anger” flow from my heart through my body.
I caught up with the students and they immediately turned to me saying (in Chinese accents): “Oh, teacher, teacher, thank you, teacher is here, those boys...” They explained to me that these guys had bullied them, just as I had seen them do. I asked them where their teacher was; they said “gone home”... I was so annoyed. By this time, these three boys were ahead of us by about 60 metres and didn't seem like they were going to bother the students any more, when suddenly I saw one of them pick up a plank of wood lying on the grass (and by plank, I mean like the side of a barn), and start running towards us! Now, this guy might have been joking, but as I pushed through the students, he slowed down, looking very surprised, until he came to a halt in front of me:
“Hey man, what are you doing?”
“Oh, just carrying this plank...”
“Yeah? Why don't you pick on someone your own size?”(I can't believe I used that line, especially since, by then, I had realised he was about a head taller than me.)
“Yeah? Like you?”(starts pushing me)
“Hmm... Maybe I'll call the police!”
“What, why?”
“Why are you pushing me?”
“Well, you're starting on me, aincha?”
“Why did you push these kids in the street?”
“Well, they wouldn't move, chattin' nonsense and everything!”
“They're Chinese, they don't understand what you're saying!”
By this time, his other two mates had joined our friendly conversation, a fat guy and a little kid on a BMX. The two big ones could easily have been nineteen. The kids stayed behind me as we walked along, but the thing was, we were all going in the same direction, so I had to keep talking to these felons as we walked along, while they threatened to beat us up with their “boys”: one of them was on the phone, pretending to call up his crew. I said to him:
“What are you doing?”
“I'm calling my boys to come over and sort you out!”
“Why would you do that?”
“Well, you're standing up to my boy and everything, you don't even have anything to do with this!” (They always have to say, “and everything”... I don't get it)
“I'M THEIR TEACHER!”
So I kept threatening to call the police, I actually had my phone out and dialled 999 a couple times, but then thought it wouldn't do much good, since this would be over sooner than they could arrive. The fat guy actually said, “You're calling the police? Go ahead, my name's (...)” (Can't remember...)
But he did accelerate his pace.
However, they said “Come on, we'll take you down this dark alley and sort you out!”
When they got to their dark alley, he grabbed a stick and as we walked on, waved it at me threateningly, “Come on then! Where you going?”
“I'm taking them the right way!”, I said.
That's as far as I can remember, the conversation we had...


I would have liked to beat their arses (just to show you what a loving guy I am); I would have liked to have a sit-down and talk about why their attitude was so wrong, their lack of logic so startling, about how they needed Jesus in their lives. I had a lot rushing through my head at that time, but my primary concern was getting my kids home, safe and sound. I texted a friend of mine in the cell meeting to come and meet me at the end of that road, just for safety, but his phone must have been off.
As I walked them on, I thought how brilliant that picture was: these guys trying to lead us down a dark alley in a path of evil and me leading these boys on in a path of light, a path of righteousness. The most amazing thing of all of this is that it had nothing to do with me! I wasn't even going to go to cell group that night! This could have happened a few minutes before and after I showed up and I would have missed it! I remembered that the previous night I had been meditating on how God has prepared good works in advance for me to do, as I walk in faith and his grace operates in me. I believe that it was Jesus who planned it all to happen right then and there, and the result was that there was a peaceful, non-violent solution, because God is a peace-maker and he used me to bring his character in this situation...
As we got into the road where they were staying, which “godincidentally” was the same road where I was going for cell group, in fact, the houses they were staying at were literally opposite my friends' house (except for two who went off to their own house one road up), and I reflected on these things, the adrenaline started rushing out of me, all the confidence built up left me and my emotions started playing up... I told my students: “Next time you're in trouble, ask Jesus to help you, I'm serious... You know why I'm here tonight? Jesus brought me here!” They said: “OK!”, they could see I wasn't joking... Now this might have been wrong for me to say on the work level... But it was true, what else could I say?
So I walked them to their homes, then knocked on my friends' house, where I entered to tell them all the story and marvel in worship at God's faithfulness and sovereignty...

Christianity in the world, part 2: Political Participation

Having set the scene in the first part of this series I wish to continue on discussing the involvement of Christians in politics. As mentioned in the previous part, Christianity is neither left nor right, nor central for that matter; it separates itself from the mainstream political scene, by its completely different set of priorities and values. Having said that, I am often worried by a strange attitude that some Christians have of not participating in the political life of their nation.


I'm pretty sure that if we took a poll, the political participation of Christians would reflect the rest of the population's, showing a great degree of apathy, since in the last forty years there has been a verified decrease in political participation across EU countries (David Broughton, Developments in West European Politics 2, ed. by Heywood et al), going down in the UK from 75% in the seventies to 69.9% in the nineties and then 59.4% at the 2001 national elections. This also has to do with the general sentiment of people concerning politics and the way it impacts their lives: in 1997 an average of 75% of European citizens thought that corruption among politicians was increasing. But surely this sentiment would draw people to do something about that? It seems not.


A phrase which I keep hearing and makes me mad is “the lesser of two evils”, which is what a lot of Christians and non-Christians say, even people I respect: “the choice between the lesser of two evils is no choice at all, that is why I won't vote!” Because there are policies that I disagree with on either side, I won't vote for either! May I say, that is a ridiculous statement and not a good reason not to vote; why instead of focussing on the negative policies, not look at the good ones, the ones that will have positive consequences on society as a whole, maybe look at the priorities of the candidates, see what they have to say that is worthwhile. The last thing we need to do is separate ourselves from the world and become some kind of fundamentalist group of people who don't want to have anything to do with it. That is an effective washing of hands, saying that we take no responsibility for the way our nation goes, but right then, we become guilty of not doing what ought to be done. Need I remind us that democracy has been set up in our nations through lots of social and military battles?


It is indeed frustrating to hear so many American presidential candidates claim to do this and that thing in the name of Jesus, to hear them shamelessly use his name to push their own agenda, but I don't believe that is a good enough reason not to go to the urns. It is also very frustrating to hear of pastors and bible teachers, even very good ones, who tell their congregations to vote for a particular candidate because they are against or for the issues which they consider priorities. I think that a good pastor should not tell his congregation who to vote for, but give good guidelines on how to make up one's own mind about who to vote for: look at what they say, what does your conscience draw you to do, etc. John Piper (a prominent bible teacher) made the brilliant statement in a preach that all candidates are sinners, all are flawed, and that is why democracy is the best system for men and women to live in, apart from Jesus coming back and ruling perfectly like only he can do: because there is at least a consensus over which one of these flawed individuals gets the place of president. On top of that, this person cannot exercise complete authority and in the end, if we don't like them, we can vote them out at the next elections.


As I write this, the campaign race is going on in the US and Italy has lost its Prime Minister, the only man who could steer that crazy boat. I am seriously worried about the future of that country, of which I am a citizen. On top of that, the archbishop of Canterbury has bizarrely declared that Muslims should have the right to be run by their traditional law, thus implying, I imagine, that Christians should be allowed to run themselves, which clearly goes against what Jesus and his apostles say about honouring the government (Luke 20:19-26, 1 Peter 2:13-17). The political world has significance in our lives, though I find it sad that so many are caught up in everything political at the loss of what is more important.


If your conscience draws you not to vote, there's nothing more I can say, but when it comes to it, I would say that Roberto Benigni's (Italian actor, director and intellectual) words are worth considering: “vote for who seems most honest, most truthful”... As simple as that.

Christianity in the World, part I

What I have been reading these days is very thought provoking, and combined with my experiences of the last few months, particularly the time I spent in Italy in November and December, is provoking me to express in written form things that are going to open up cans of worms all over the place, since they have to do with world views that are common to most people, but I think that's a good thing, since one of the worst things I can do for someone, in my opinion, is not tell them why I disagree with them, because then I'm not loving them, not respecting them.

Everyone in this world, eventually, in one form or another, chooses a team to be on, be it political, religious, cultural, often it's a combination of these categories, and interestingly, all these teams of people have something to say about Jesus, who they think he is, and what they think about his Church. They also usually either totally reject Jesus and the Bible, or they pick and choose passages and images from it to push their own agenda, because after all, one can interpret the Bible any way one wishes to, isn't that right? (Rhetoric question, just in case you're confused, the answer to that is a screaming “NO!” coming straight from my mouth)
One of the things I wish to clarify here (in this series, if I manage to write more than one) is the question of Christianity and politics, because a lot of people are rightfully confused about it, since all sorts of people claiming to be Christians do all sorts of things in the name of Jesus.

The first thing I need to do before I start out proper though and before anyone switches off, because they just read the word “politics” is that Christianity and the Bible are neither “left” nor “right”, though they have something to say about all the issues on the political boards across most countries in the world. However, I have never come across a political party that had 100% Christian values as I have never come across a political party claiming to be Christian in whose members there were the visible spiritual fruits of character and behaviour I would expect to see in Christians. Those who know me, probably know my political leanings, which I do not wish to express here, but they might very well show as I continue to type.

As I have mentioned earlier, people have to react to Jesus and to the Bible, there's no way around it, and they usually either reject all of it, or they use what they think they know about it in order to push their personal agenda and world view.
One of the world views which has highly influenced modern history and politics is communism. As a young man (I mean younger) I tried to see Christianity and communism as working hand in hand, but at a closer look, the most obvious thing is that Christianity is not communist (and it is not capitalist either).

The premise of Marxist communism is that every nation of the world is in a constant social struggle of classes: the poor, oppressed, working class against the rich governing class, and the dream of communism is that one day the proletariat (literally, those who for riches have only their children) would overthrow the leading class and change the nations into a government of equality, complete financial redistribution and mutual respect. The inconsistency of communism within itself is this: everyone is equal and deserving of the same respect, unless they disagree with me. The inconsistency there is between communism and Christianity is that communism identifies evil with the rich minority and sees everyone else as oppressed victims, while the Bible tells us that everyone is evil and all need to repent.

In his film called “Il Vangelo secondo Matteo” or “The Gospel according to St. Matthew” (which I admittedly have not seen), Pier Paolo Pasolini depicts Jesus as a Marxist preacher who attacks the powers of his day in favour of the poor people. This would be a perfect example of someone who uses the name of Jesus to push his own agenda, because in no gospel is Jesus rooting for anyone but his Father in heaven. Jesus was telling the religious people of his time that they had distorted the truth of the Old Testament, and never did he say anything against the Roman Empire, which was the real political power at the time; on the contrary, he told his disciples to live peaceably in the world, but that's something we'll talk about later. Pasolini, in his understanding of the world and probably to some degree his respect for the person of Jesus, saw something that was not in the text.

That interpretation, however enticing for those who hold a similar world view, is not shared by all communists, since most of them outright reject the Bible and its teachings, because they see that it is not consistent with their world view, but at least that's an honest reaction and they read the text right. However, I would point them to some places in the Bible they have obviously not read.

The Bible does actually talk about poverty and social iniquity: the purpose of the Law which God gave Moses was primarily to govern a nation effectively and in Deuteronomy we see probably the first mention in the whole of history of the need for social welfare (Deut. 15:7-11). This was revolutionary and that behaviour would indeed shock onlooking nations. The purpose of Israel as a nation was to be a light unto other nations, for them to see that the God of Israel was the one true God and glorify him as such. I add this parenthèse because most people will then say that God was unjust in choosing one nation above others and I would say to you, think about it as God's starting point in redeeming mankind (I would also say, you're not allowed to judge God).

About social and political injustice, the Bible cries out, particularly in Psalms 14 and 73, and the gist of them is this: God will judge those who commit these things, in this life or the next. The scary thing here is that people will say “that's not enough!”, because they look at these people and judge them, then look at their own lives and, making that comparison, declare themselves righteous, and thus doing, they sin, because instead of humbling themselves and repenting of their own pride and self-righteousness, they elevate themselves to the place of God and bring judgement upon others.
The Bible also talks against the rich capitalists who accumulate money and greedily do not pay proper wages to their labourers (James 5:1-6), but it generally talks against loving money instead of loving God! (Matthew 6:24) (Just in case people thought I was communist-bashing.)

My dad has a big problem about the fact that supposedly the Bible does not denounce slavery, which was a big social issue at that time, a very good reason for not believing it to be the Word of God. But what does the Bible say about slavery? Paul says to slaves: “obey your masters with respect and fear and sincerity of heart”. Oh my goodness! So does it condone mistreatment of humans? No! Paul says to masters: “Treat your slaves in the same way” (that is, with respect and fear and sincerity of heart!) (Ephesians 6) The fear he talks about is that of God. Why? Because God says “Love your neighbour as yourself”, and Jesus qualifies your neighbour as meaning everyone! (Luke 10:25-37)

So the Bible doesn't talk outright about whether slavery is right or wrong. Well, this is one of those cases in which we must say, “those were different times” and there were people who were slaves, that was their job and they were happy about it, if their masters treated them well. They were like full-time staff and I make no excuses for the analogy, because the way we think of slaves in our time is not the same as the way people thought back then and when we bring our own thinking to a text that has a different historical and cultural background, we automatically do a disservice to our understanding of it. God made every human being in His own likeness and wishes that all be treated equally. It's not because one's job is to serve another one that they are not equal and deserving of the same respect, it's their response to that that will show what is in their heart. *

But the point I want to get across here is that the Bible, though it sometimes does talk about social issues and social injustice, is not a book about social issues, it's not a book about the struggle of social classes, and it makes no apology for it, because it is talking about things that are far greater than the communist and capitalist world views!

Here's an interesting quote from Paul: “Were you a slave when you were called? Don't let it trouble you—although if you can gain your freedom, do so. For he who was a slave when he was called by the Lord is the Lord's freedman; similarly, he who was a free man when he was called is Christ's slave.” (1 Corinthians 7:21-22)

If you can gain freedom, do it, since in Christ you have freedom, but the one who was free when he became a Christian is a slave to Christ. This might seem very confusing to some, it's talking about being free but a slave at the same time, how does that work? Here's where the vision widens: it's not whether you are a slave or not, it's who you are a slave to! The Bible declares that the whole world is a prisoner, a slave to sin, but that if you trust in Jesus, you can become slaves of righteousness! In God's eyes there are only two teams: the World, a prisoner to sin and Satan... And the Church, those who have been rescued from their sin, by no merit of their own, thanks to Jesus' works and sacrifice! The problem with communism is that it says that when the working class gains power everything will be fine, but the truth is, those who are then in charge will become corrupt, because that is the condition of man's heart! But the great thing is that Jesus can change men and women's hearts by his power, granting them repentance. And the final outcome of the whole of history is going to be a new government, a monarchy, whose king is Jesus, but who will reign righteously forever and his people will all be equals, enjoying one another forever! And that is a far greater hope than any other.

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* On a side note, when the Emperor Constantine came to power around at the beginning of the 4th Century and the church started getting some influence over his opinion and decisions (which also marked the beginning of the decline of the church, but that's for a different post), one of the things that happened was that they influenced the laws on slave-trade, to the point that people weren't allowed to be branded in the face any longer, which of course is wrong and barbaric, and parents were discouraged from giving up their children as slaves, by giving them a family allowance from the imperial treasuries, a practice way ahead of its time (similar to welfare state laws)! (ref.: F.F. Bruce, The Spreading Flame, p.296) Now, that doesn't seem like much, but the church didn't have all that much influence on matters outside of itself, and that seems like one of the first examples in history where Christian ethics influenced for the better the laws and practices of the Roman Empire, whilst only a few years previously they were getting persecuted by the same empire.

Arsenal VS Fulham, pensées

This is going to be mean, but I said I'd write about it...

Two weeks ago, for work I was invited to accompany our students on an excursion to see the Fulham - Arsenal game in Fulham Stadium... I honestly thought I would get into the atmosphere of the game but...

If I believed in evolution, I would say that evident proof for it is seen in the crowds of supporters at a live football match; I have never seen so many apes together in one place at the same time, standing up and sitting down at random moments, flinging things erratically, making odd hand gestures and sounds that would suggest there might be intelligence in there, to the hopeful scientist...
I mean, come on there is clearly a type of football supporter that is loud, hairy and overweight, with the man-titties that those apes have too, though I couldn't help notice a pair of twin gibbons, sitting fairly close to me, skinny and bald, the sounds they made were more like imitations of everyone else, rather than spontaneous... They frustrated me more than anyone else because they wouldn't shut up! On top of that they started swearing at the goalkeeper from the other team, who was just playing and doing his job!

I honestly tried to enjoy the game, but it was one of the most boring things ever! The players themselves were clearly unevenly matched, Fulham was getting rinsed and I couldn't believe that its supporters were getting angry and frustrated, their team was so far inferior to Arsenal. In truth, apart from the three goals, nothing much happened and actually, being so close to the game just helped me realise one of the saddest things ever: these men here were just playing a game and 25,000 people were watching them. Worst of all, the people watching were there to make a sacrifice to their idol, by spending money, time and standing up to chant nonsensical things and swear at the players of the other team.
That night, over half of those people went home unfulfilled by their religion.


Post-Scriptum: Admittedly, many football supporters are not the way I have just described them, these are just my humourous thoughts about this experience (sorry if you don't appreciate the humour). However, it is a sobering truth that many in this country and abroad organise their lives around football and it becomes their idol and their worship, detracting their attention from far greater things...