New Norcia Poems

PRESCRIPT: Recently, my wife Sandy and I were part of a group of theology students who travelled to the little town of New Norcia, Western Australia, to spend a week with the monks of the Benedictine Abbey there, sharing their lives as they sang the seven Offices of the day, as well as working on assignments and projects for our theological studies.  This was a blessed and grace-filled time, enabling us all to tap into the rich and ancient traditions of Benedictine spirituality, undergirt as they are by the Rule of Benedict, which provides a shape and a purpose for the monks’ lives.  Part of the students’ assessment criteria was the compilation of a journal; not a blow-by-blow account of the week spent at the Abbey, but a reflection upon the experience itself, its impact and meaning.  For my journal, I composed a series of short poems (with introductions) as a kind of impressionistic survey of my thoughts and feelings.  Now that the journals have been assessed, I feel I can now properly post my poems here to share with others.  I don’t make any claims for their quality as poems; but I have they will provide an insight into my own experience.

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Collisions with God

The great 12th Century Persian mystic and poet, Shamsuddin Muhammad Hafiz wrote the following short poem, of which I am very fond:

God
and I have become
like two giant fat people living
in a tiny
boat.
We
keep bumping into
each other
and
laughing.

I am very fond of this poem because it is one to which I can relate.  God and I have been bumping into one another for all of my life.  Or, to be truthful, I have been trying my best to avoid God; but God, like some persistent, divine dodgem car, has always ensured we were on a collision course.

And I think that that’s why I am today a candidate to the ordained ministry; I am the fissionable remains of constantly being impacted by God.  And yet I still feel as though I’m living on a tiny boat (even if I don’t quite deserve the description of a “giant fat person”!), bumping into God at unexpected moments.  And sometimes I’m tossed overboard, into the bracing waters of grace; but always I scramble back on board again, for I have discovered that even if the encounters are occassionally bruising (and why should Jacob at Peniel have had all the fun?), without them I am simply not whole.

Who would have thought it possible?

The Psalms and Christ: Two Lenten Reflections

PRESCRIPT: As with many other Christian communities, the Uniting Church congregation of North Ringwood to which I and my Dearly Beloved belong produces a booklet of reflections for Lent, written by members of the congregation for the congregation to use as a resource for daily prayer and reflection.  Here are two reflections which I contributed to this year’s booklet.

Date:  For 2nd Sunday in Lent (March 8th)

TITLE: GOD AND HUMAN ALIENATION

SCRIPTURAL TEXT

For he did not despise or abhor the affliction of the afflicted; he did not hide his face from me, but heard when I cried to him. Ps. 22:24

All human beings share an affliction: our brokenness and alienation from God.  Yet despite our brokenness, God does not despise us; on the contrary, God actively seeks relationship with every person.  Indeed, it is precisely because of our brokenness that God reaches out to us: God’s purpose is to effect our redemption and restoration, not our condemnation.

The Victorian Bushfires: A Prayer Cycle

PRESCRIPT:  I have been given the immense privilege this week of preparing for my local congregation a cycle of prayers to help people grieve for, and reflect upon, the tragedy of the Victorian bushfires.  What follows represents my attempt to live up to this charge.  The first three prayers in the cycle are of my composition; the last prayer is adapted from resources provided by the Victorian/Tasmanian Synod of the Uniting Church in Australia.

1. Introduction

In the Book of Psalms, the word selah marks a period of reflection; it is a call to pause, to stop and listen.  In the wake of the terrible bushfires that have inflicted such deep wounds upon so many, we gather to pause and listen: to our grief, to our anger, to our shock, to our despair.  We gather to minister to one another, to be present to each person and to our community.  We gather to give ourselves permission and space, in our anguish and distress, to cry out to God.

As I share this time of prayer with you, I will occasionally proclaim: selah.  We will use this time to stop and listen, to pause and reflect.

Clint Eastwood and Christ: A Reflection on “Gran Torino”

It’s amazing where you can find Christ.

In many respects, Clint Eastwood’s latest film, Gran Torino, is a bleak affair.  It tells the story of Walt, a traumatised Korean War veteran who deals with the pain of his memories by hiding behind a wall of crusty misanthropy and bitter racism.  Walt’s life is locked into a dead end of re-cycled routine – disguised as “discipline” and “orderliness” – and excessive drinking.  Even his family life has been infected: he is all but estranged from his sons and their families; and now that he is a widower, his life has been reduced to one of lonely isolation.

Job: The God’s Eye View

The Book of Job is one of the most difficult and challenging texts in the entire Old Testament, one which challenges our preconceptions and overturns our notions about who God is and how God operates in the world.  It is a text we quite often approach with an “understanding” that arises from popular piety or from “insights” which have become proverbial as a consequence of the text’s fame; but we quickly discover that not only is such “wisdom” wholly inadequate, it is utterly wrong.

China: A Theological Reflection

I have only recently returned from a three week trip to China with my Dearly Beloved, another adult, and 21 teenagers.  We were there because my Dearly Beloved teaches Chinese as a Second Language in high school, and for some years has been conducting regular language and culture trips to China with groups of students. I went along as a supervising adult, albeit with a little trepidation as this was the first time I’d been to China, never mind had so many young folk in my care! 

Three Weeks In…

Well, as it has nearly been a month since the new academic year started, and given I’m going to be offline (and offshore!) for a brief interval, I thought I’d provide some thoughts about how matters have panned out to date.

Going Up The Mountain

Well, not quite…

My Dearly Beloved and I have just returned from Pallotti College, a retreat in the foothills around Mt Donna Buang in Eastern Victoria.  The College was originally built as a seminary for the Pallotine Order, but has long been used as a spiritual retreat and conference centre – a task for which it is more than adequately suited, given its beautiful location and peaceful atmosphere.

The Suffering Servant: Two Lent Reflections

Similar to the Advent reflections which I talked about in a previous post, the North Ringwood Uniting Church has produced a booklet of Advent reflections to provide the congregation with reference points for prayer and contemplation during the season of Lent.

So, for your edification, I reproduce the two short contributions which I made to this year’s Lent booklet.  As with the Advent reflections, each article begins with a Scriptural passage and concludes with a prayer.