The Walk to the Bank

An amazing rainbow hangs in the air in the early morning. Clear as crystal. The sun shimmers through a curtain of light rain. The river dazzles. We take a walk along the river down to the Branch of the Santander Bank. We do this at the end of every month. It’s become something of a ritual for us. A symbolic walk for us - an exercise in prayer and faith. We go there to ensure we have enough money in our account for the rent withdrawal which takes place on the 5th of every month and we do any transactions if we have to. We could do the transactions online from home, but it has become meaningful to walk to the bank. Its high tide, so the river is awash with all sorts of flotsam and driftwood from the recent storms that have lashed the country. People died in France and Galicia over the weekend.

We leave the river bank to walk up between two apartment blocks and past Escola Vasco da Gama. We think of last night, which was the first time we held church in the auditorium there. For just over two years we have been paying our rent, and each week, watching our place being used as the small fellowship into something more significant. Like a small plant that you keep in a plant pot on the windowsill it grows and stretches its roots till its ready to be planted out. As numbers increase and commitment to one another grows, now is the time to begin to just stretch a little. Not move entirely. That will come in time. But just feel that gentle moving to the edge of the nest. To feel what its like to meet with one another and worship God in another place.

So the rainbow fades. We return home. The sky is clear now and the rain stops. And God reminds us through his provision for one more month, of his unending faithfulness.

Who Eats But is not Satisfied....

Who eats but is not satisfied

Who hears but does not see,
. Who falls in love with wealth itself
. And turns his back on me.

Sounds like Micah, or some other Old Testament Prophet, and it could well have been. In fact according to the Jewish writer, Lawrence J Epstein, these lyrics sung by Bob Dylan in “I Pity the Poor Immigrant” from the album “John Wesley Harding” are full of allusions to the 26th chapter of Leviticus. And, as it just so happens, I am reading Lev 26 this morning

Now, for those of you who missed out totally on the sixties, “John Wesley Harding” was the album when Dylan moved, against the tide, and the current of “stream of consciousness” psychedelia back to a more rootsy sound based in the common human lot of of living and surviving in middle America. Its a world full of hobos and drifters, immigrants and small town gangsters. And its a world conscious of a God who has His eye on the wicked and on the righteous, on the deceiver and the deceived, on the oppressors and the victims

In fact, as I re-listened to “Poor Immigrant” this morning, I suddenly saw it as written from the persective of God - God’s eye view on a humanity that rebels and twists and lies and deceives in order to try and make sense of and manage his world, and yet a humanity to be pitied and loved and shown mercy. Amazing poetry

I pity the poor immigrant
Who wishes he would've stayed home,
Who uses all his power to do evil
But in the end is always left so alone.
That man whom with his fingers cheats
And who lies with ev'ry breath,
Who passionately hates his life
And likewise, fears his death.

Getting back to Leviticus 26, I read the startling and awesome contrast between what it means to obey God and to walk with Him, on the one hand and what happens when you constantly turn your back on him, on the other. Its a chapter of blessings, and woes of the riches of living in harmony with Him, and the ultimate horrors of living without Him. You should read it. For me, by following Him, I find a wonderful trio of “p”s -

the Promise of fruitfulness,

the Peace that no human comfort can bring, and

the Presence of an Almighty Everpresent God who says

“I will put my dwelling place among you,

I will walk among you and be your God

and you will be my people”

* 'When Dylan Spoke for God', by Lawrence Epstein, August 2009 on http://thebestamericanpoetry.typepad.com

Leviticus 26:12

Lot's Lot

Sometimes the choices in life seem good at the time. But they lead us bit by bit into a situation when we suddenly realise how far we have moved out of God’s plan for our lives. It may have been a career decision, or a relationship choice, or something else where the grass seemed greener, more secure, more exciting. But now, you feel stuck, unable to move on or out, and increasingly influenced by the culture around you.

Its kind of like the path that a man called Lot took when he made the choice to separate from his Uncle and head over towards the fertile plains of Sodom. The choice was most probably an astute one, given the economics of the situation, and the need to settle down from the nomadic lifestyle and put down roots. But the poor guy didn’t seem to have the foresight to see that its not just about the money. That the end result of living in a godless culture would lead him not just to distance himself from God, but to open himself and his family up to all sorts of risks. And its not just about the sex. Thats what Sodom has come to be famous for in history. But a society with few controls on moral behaviour rapidly becomes a society that opens itself up to violence and injustice.

But what struck me by the whole Lot and Abraham story is that incredible passage in Genesis 18 where Abraham debates with God over the fate of Sodom and his nephews family who are living there. What struck me is that sometimes a good man, like Lot, can be stuck in an intolerable situation, and become spiritually unable to help himself to escape. What he needed was an Abraham, living on a higher plain, walking in communion with God, to intercede and pray on his behalf.

What a powerful spiritual tool is intercession. To be able to stand in the place of people who cannot or will not pray for themselves, and who are maybe not even conscious of the dangerous situation they are in. I walk through the park and down by the river, and I see countless faces, marked by worry an anxiety. And I wonder, who is stand up for them . Who is interceding before a holy God and pleading for their lives, for God to break through and overwhelm them with His mercy and love. I wish I could be that one.

By the way, the picture is of a 5th century mosaic depicting the parting of the ways between Abraham and Lot that is situated in the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome

Breaking Through

So there’s this big rock. A massive lump of granite, taller than a building, and it seems to have been sitting there for centuries. Originally it would have probably stood on its own in a patchwork of rice and wheat fields. Now its hemmed in by the growth of the city around it, and in fact forms part of the compound of “Beakthrough”, Bangalore, where our daughter Sharon and husband Rohit now live, and where we spent ten days of our Christmas holidays in India.

What fascinated me about this rock was its energy. On the early mornings, as the sun was making it over the horizon, I would walk through the garden, climb the steps up onto the back of this mountain, and gaze out over the busy roads and there commune with God. It was an easy place to talk to God. Now, I’m not one given to attaching spiritual significance to places, but I sensed a particular vibe there that made it easy to pray. A little oasis of spiritual peace in the midst of all the temples and mosques.

But the energy of the rock lay in its one unique feature. Two or three massive fissures ran down through the rock literally splitting it right down the middle. And within these fissures, the roots of an ancient tree forcing their way down through to the earth. And on the pinnacle of this rock, the wizened branches of this old tree reaching up to the heavens. You have to see it to really imagine the sheer power of life that managed to split a rock in two. The phenomenon inspired the name of the outdoor activity and team building company that Robin and Linda Paul have been running there since 2000 - “Breakthrough”. Helping individuals and teams to break through in terms of performance and communication.

So in the shadow of this powerful symbol of the strength that life has over death, that growth has over inactivity, I give glory to God, the author and perfector of this faith that helps me see beyond the mundane and to perceive the wonder in the ordinary

http://www.breakthrough-india.com/

There and Back Again

Wow. 2010 has started and its January 25th already. I guess I’ll begin the year with two more mini movie reviews. Courtesy of Air India, they were what I watched on the flight over to Bangalore on December 10th and back again on January 2nd.

Anna doesn’t quite understand my fascination with Bollywood. I guess I must have looked a bit odd on the flight. The passengers seated around me were all Indian and tuned into the English channels on the in flight enter

tainment. I was the only one watching the Hindi movie! This obsession, if you like to call it that, began around 1999 when we were working in Pakistan. The first movie that really fired my imagination was Kuch Kuch Hota Hei with Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol. I guess it has something to do with the catchy tunes, the elaborate dance sequences, the melodramatic acting and the corny dialogue, the set piece plots which are often total fantasy and yet rooted in the culture of the subcontinent and its interactions with other cultures. But Bollywood has come a long way from that stereotype, and has grown up in many ways.

I haven’t had the chance to watch much on offer in recent days, and so I was considerably impressed with the quality of both “Delhi 6”, on the way out, and “Love Aaj Kal” on the return journey. The latter was a cute and contemporary love story, and the cultural nuances were painted by juxtaposing the contemporary relationship with one of twenty years ago which is played out in a series of flashbacks. Delhi 6 was also good, not only because of another excellent soundtrack by A R Rahman, but in the way it expresses the life of the community in a corner of Delhi as an often confusing mix of ancient and modern, tradition and superstition, mixed religious sensibilities of the older generation and the yearnings and passions of the younger.

Kind of sums up our trip to India - that totally sensory overload of smells, sounds and colour that hit us between the eyes on landing in Bangalore, and followed us to the beaches of Goa. It was the combination of ancient and modern, the go-ahead 21st century city, bursting at the seams with energy and struggling to keep up with itself, and the calm and serene way of life of the Goan coast and countryside being ruthlessly taken over in the name of tourism. More about these themes later, I am sure.

Two War Movies

I’m normally not a huge fan of war films. I never really got into “Saving Private Ryan” and their like. But this last week I watched two world war II movies in rapid succession, because they happened to be on the television channel and found both to be compelling viewing.

The one, “Downfall”, was in German with subtitles, and depicted the last days of Adolf Hitler in his bunker while Berlin fell around him. Bruno Ganz´s portrayal of Hitler was mesmerising.

The other, “Enemy at the Gates” from 2001, is a little bit earlier, but none the less, a remarkable vision of the Battle of Stalingrad from a Russian perspective. That was the first battle the Germans lost, and spelt the beginning of the end of the Third Reich (and apparently the battle with the highest number of casualties of all time)

I suppose I found them both interesting because they didn’t give the normal British or American interpretation of that particular period of warfare, and also because they both showed the devastating impact of all out war on a people and a city.

My generation grew up without the idea of war as an immediate reality on the doorstep. There were plenty of other issues to deal with in the 60’s and 70’s, but war was not one of them. It was hard for us to imagine the level of deprivation and suffering that marked our parents generation, for whom, values of honour, loyalty and endurance were not just on their lips - they were written in their lives and part of their beings.

The thing that I came away with from those two films, was the madness, the savagery, the hell that marks so much of conflict that tears up our world, but in the middle of it all, glimpses of human dignity and real heroism. On the spiritual level also, I see myself and those around me caught up in a cosmic battle between the forces of good and evil, with the same measure of ugliness and pain, deception and betrayal, but also with a real hero and a confidence in victory

........................."He who does what is sinful is of the devil,

because the devil has been sinning from the beginning.

The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work." 1 John3:8

"You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them,

because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world." 1 John4:4

Being Irish

Today I feel a bit ashamed to be Irish. Even though, being of Ulster Presbyterian stock, I could disassociate myself from dark misdemeanours of the Roman Catholic clergy in the Republic. I could join others in pointing the finger - that’s them, not us. But I feel tainted.

I feel tainted, when the world’s media glares on my island, and at an institutional abandonment of the principles of truth and light and care, in preference for lies and darkness and self-service. And all that in the supposed interests of God and His church.

I feel tainted by a shared humanity. And a deep knowledge within myself that, I too harbour the potential to do harm and to cover up the harm with lies, and under the cloak of religiosity and good works.

“Men have always loved darkness, instead of light,” says John the Apostle, “because their deeds were evil”.

I suppose what angers me, though, is that when something like this happens, and there is much apologising and wringing of hands, there’s also a kind of attitude of “let’s put this thing behind us, and get on with the business of managing our world better – after all, we’re not as bad as all that, are we”.

Why don’t we ever listen. Why don’t we ever see. Stories like this, and all the other sin-filled stories that fill the newspapers this morning, only go to show the truth of what was told long ago, that

..............................................The human heart is the most deceitful of all things,

and desperately wicked

We are all infected and impure with sin.

When we display our righteous deeds,

they are nothing but filthy rags.

Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall,

and our sins sweep us away like the wind.

But, God who is rich in mercy, because of his great love for us,

made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our sins—

for, it is by grace you have been saved.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,

that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

From Jeremiah 17, Isaiah 64, Ephesians 2 and John 3