World expanding words…
Wittgenstein noted that “The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.” It’s an interesting sentiment. Can I understand what I cannot adequately name? Does a restricted vocabulary mean a reduced ability to enter into the world of another, or my own world? Do I need the nuance of alternate words to more perceptively comprehend what I am trying to grasp? In Scripture, words matter. God speaks the creative words “let there be…” and reality springs into being. Jesus is described as the Word who was at the beginning, the Word through whom all things...
Read MoreIf You are Willing: On Power and Possibilities
In Matthew 8:2 a man with leprosy approaches Jesus not with the anticipated “will you heal me?” but a statement, “If you are willing you can heal me…” The man has no doubt about Jesus’ ability, just his willingness. It’s a little confronting. Perhaps he had heard of the man who had been an invalid for 38 years before Jesus healed him at the Pool of Bethesda (John 5:1-16). He might not have enthused about the wonder of this miracle but asked about the others at that pool who weren’t healed – did Jesus not care about them? Did Jesus only...
Read MoreA Walk in the Woods…
This week Rosemary and I managed a short escape down Margaret River way, in part to celebrate my 66th birthday. Most of the family joined us and we were amply accommodated in a cavernous home that could have coped with a party twice our size. The weather was great in a wintery way – cold and sometimes misty, but nothing to stop us carrying out our plans, one of which was to walk the Chimney Trail in Wooditjup National park – a walk suitable for both 5 and 65 year olds (we did it the day before my birthday, when I was younger). A few things struck me from our walk in the woods....
Read MoreThen I remember, death comes before the rolling away of the stone
It was a throwaway line in a talk by a speaker whose name I have now forgotten: “We feel more moral, more right, more cheaply than ever before.” It was a comment on the shrill nature of much public discourse, and how easily we feel moral because we have expressed a noble sentiment, though expressing it has cost us nothing. Although not necessarily the intention of the speaker, it set me thinking about spiritual and moral formation, and how we learn and grow in life. And then I stumbled upon this magnificent conclusion to Mary Oliver’s poem At Black River “Then I...
Read MoreWhen Leaders Fall…
To be clear, this post isn’t a reaction to some new scandal and I’m not making any veiled references to some unsavoury incident soon to shock and dismay the Christian community. It is true that there have been so many moral failures that we should be disturbed – but even if you immediately attach a name to what I am about to write, I am not thinking about any one person – just a disturbing trend that impacts us all, no matter which flavour of the Christian faith you adhere to. Come to think of it, it’s not simply Christians who are impacted, for when we talk...
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