Month: March 2016

16.3.16

– “When I wake up, I am still with you… ”

This (faith) ain’t no dream!

– Cricket:

Is the Indian batting line-up made up of fair-weather (pitch) performers?

Do Indian batsmen have a weakness against quality spin? Have they focused too much on facing fast bowlers on bouncy & seaming conditions?

Are they mentally (or physically) fatigued from too many matches recently?

Is the groundsman to be blamed for this dismal show by India?

Are the New Zealand spinners really world class? Or maybe the Indians were overconfident, & should have given them more respect…

– The Passion:

How can we celebrate a crucifixion?!

The cross of Christ

Vs.

The general practice

– Don’t fix any appointments on Wednesday (contemplation), Thursday (mid-week off) & Sunday (Sabbath).

– babes

Why the double meaning?

– quotidian

– Those in a contemplative context focus on being active,

And those in an active context, focus on being contemplative.

Contemplation as inward work,

And service as outward transformation.

– Authentic development involves radical transformation, but usually as an arduous process, & not as a sudden event.

– Without a sense of central purpose or vocational identity, how can you navigate the challenges of making good long-term decisions, or healthy daily choices?

– Unintentional, unearned & unexpected blessings

– Have you had dreams that have shit (literally!) in them?

– SA (unemployed & clueless) is in a better position than AD (settled career), when it comes to vocation!

– Vocation includes vacation.

– Sex & race:

Would Europeans crave the African body?

– Font:

Plain

Vs.

Bold

Vs.

Italics

Vs.

Underlined

What’s your style?

– All of the above

Vs.

None of the above

– “They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him.”

Contrast:

The Pharisees’ contest with Jesus (enemy attack)

&

Job’s argument with GOD/Jacob’s duel with the angel (lover’s quarrel)

– Does self-examination make one judgmental?

How can I be both honest & merciful?

– Let GOD be the only judge.

Let no one, not even yourself, judge you!

– Let all those who are sick in/of the marketplace be brought to touch Jesus, so that they may be healed!

Deliver us from the cowardice & fatalism that masquerade as piety & humility……

– “He stood  trial so that we might be  free.”

But I don’t understand, how can it be!

Because of Jesus, the whole world now knows whose side GOD is on……

– Moral spirituality

&

Spiritual morality

– GOD to (his) Christ:

Be faithful to me –> be crushed by our enemies –> wait at my right hand –> be vindicated & glorified!

– What are the most trendy idolatries?

– The accused is not always the (innocent) victim, & the accuser is not always the (guilty) oppressor.

But that’s how it often is, in this world that the Gospel reveals!

The one who attacks is usually in a position of power, & the one who is defending is usually in a lower place.

And more often than not, justice is on the side of the powerless, not because of their inherent virtue, but because of the corrupting nature of power.

Power is morally/spiritually hazardous, just as much as it is materially/socially advantageous.

– Waiting as seeking!

Distinguish:

Seeking

&

Searching

Don’t wander, wait!

– Leaders

Vs.

Salvation!

Elders, experts & rulers

Vs.

GOD, Christ & church

Leadership is as dangerous as it is amazing. Just like nuclear technology……

– If not for the Jewish leaders (Herod & chief-priests), Rome would never have killed Jesus, right?

But how important was the role of Judas in the plot to arrest Jesus?

17.3.16

– Deep-er life

– Theories of atonement

Theories of sacraments

Theories of mission

– Christian, whose face & hand do you look up to, for your sustenance & salvation:

The economic might of the corporate world?

The warmth of a harmonious family & marriage?

Your reputation & acceptance in a sinful society?

– Evil – how are the existence of the Devil & the reality of sin related?

– Heb. 10:5, 7

My body as the instrument of GOD’S will on earth!

– Christian, do you just fit your faith/religion into the already existing power structures of this world – marketplace, state, family, social morality, etc.?

– The question is not, whether GOD exists, what matters is what I have to do with him…!

– Falling forward before Jesus, in worship

Vs.

Falling back as we seek to arrest Him

– Am I not a nominal non-Christian?

– Heb. 10:1

– The GOD who gives himself away for us, requires nothing less from us, than our whole selves, as an offering of gratitude.

Not just something of what we have, or do, but all of who we are!

– Moving from keeping the regulations of the Law, to living in & out of GOD’S love!

– Mercy > sacrifice

Obedience > ritual

– By His will, we are made holy through the offering of our lives to His glory!

– The scapegoat is the Messiah!!!

– If you are not willing to do what is necessary for what you hear/read to become flesh in you, then how will you ever become a worthy Christian?

Discipline as ritual/duty

Vs.

Discipline as training/nourishment/

– Heb. 10:3, 18 – nothing remains now!

– May we never stop approaching the Throne with confidence.

Come, let us go once again now!

– Notice well, these 3 signs during Jesus’s death:

The earthquake & darkening of the sun.

The tearing of the veil in the Temple.

The dead coming back to life from the graves.

– What is a “perfect conscience”?

– Lord, give me the new identity that transcends & replaces all the other false definitions. Liberate me to be who I really am, as revealed by you.

– “Accept Jesus as your personal savior.” – No.

“Give myself up to Jesus, the Lord of the world.” – Yes.

– “Eat, sleep, rave, repeat…… ”

Oooh! 😉

How often & for how long?

– Movies:

“Ida” (Polish) – Hit!

I don’t think she’s going back to the convent… 🙂

Does she have a (latent) lesbian tendency?

She will continue the genetic narrative – Jewish, Polish & her family heritage (aunt)!

“Your Jesus adored people like me… ”

– “Dark Knight Returns” (graphic novel) – Frank Miller

Hit!

Check out the screenshots on my blog.

Israel – man can wrestle with, but could he really prevail over, GOD?!

The Messiah as criminal, lunatic & monster…

The hero needs the people as much as they need him (but for different reasons)!

18.3.16

– Patrimony

&

Matrimony

Why is marriage called ‘matrimony’?

The husband as father, & the wife as mother…

Mutual parenting!

– There are 2 kinds of people:

Those who change with learning (spiritual)

&

Those who never grow (carnal)

– Legacy > inheritance

– Review > rating

– Anyone who sets out to be a messiah, without being Called, will just end up raising Hell (for themselves & their world)!

– We proclaim him by instructing and teaching all people with all wisdom so that we may present every person mature in Christ.

Colossians 1:28 NET

– “Take off your hat to nothing known or unknown, or to any man or number of men.”

–  Walt Whitman

What about GOD? Bow your head without bending your knee!

– “When you have crucified me, then you will know that I am he.”

Hmmm… Is there any other way??

– Compare the 2 movies:

“Passion of the Christ”

&

“300”

WOW!!!

A defeated Messiah is much more powerful than a victorious champion……

20.3.16

– Isa. 50:4, 6

Listening to the Word –> being empowered to suffer injustice!

– uncreate!

– Joseph of Arimathea – Luk. 23:50-51

– Today (@ St. Luke’s) was a great sermon, but it was not a Palm Sunday sermon.

– Music – familiarity breeds delight!

– I cried in church today! 🙂

– Lifestyle is nothing but character made explicit.

Character is nothing but the inward source & eternal consequence of lifestyle.

– Credible disciples, creative devotees & convincing witnesses

– Congregation – and so, we attune our hearts & minds to the great things GOD is doing in our midst, through Christ.

– The best demonstration of power is not the toppling of those already in authority, but the assertion of one’s own dignity & freedom, and the consequent refusal to bow to any temporal empire!

– GOD is searching for another Body!

– Proclamation, procession & propagation

– Anarchy:

Idealism

Or

Chaos?

– Movie:
“300: Rise of an Empire” (flop)
This movie is nothing, compared to “300”, which was a truly great movie!
Looks like a video-game – especially the CGI blood.
Gorgo, my favorite character, looks so stupid and stubborn in this film… All the usual characters seem much “smaller”!

21.3.16

– Has there been any response from the Vatican to the movie “Spotlight”?

– The challenge of immediacy and the trials of authenticity

–  French film critic Andre Bazin on neorealism: “No more actors, no more story, no more sets, which is to say that the perfect aesthetic illusion of reality, there is no more cinema.”

– Film praxis

– Catholic-Marxist!

– diagesis

– Realism:
Naïve
Vs.
Critical

– “…an attempt to move away decisively from the traditional models of natural theology as the main focus of the philosophy of religion, and to look again at the relations between language, experience and reality, not forgetting to be existing individuals.”

– “The subjective appropriation of spiritual truths”

23.3.16

– Cricket:
I feel sorry for Bangladesh! 🙂
They deserved to win…

– Am I a quack theologian?
Of course……! 😉

– You’re no martyr, bro.
You’re just a slave!
And no amount of mystifying & romanticizing will change that.

– Abstinence –> horny –> indulgence –> hibernation –> abstinence –> ……

– Economics is where it’s at!
So, how is your theology/spirituality of work/money?

24.3.16

– Consecration –> transubstantiation
Liturgy as public theology!

– Eucharistic miracles & Marian apparitions

– Prayer of the People:
“Lord, may the Eucharist transform our lives.”

– Mysticism & the powers
Contrast:
Sacramentality
&
Escapism

– It is more important that you immerse yourself completely in the immediate (aesthetic/religious/affective) experience, rather than try to glean some “points” to be applied later…

– Spirituality:
Personal-relational-communal
AND
Economic-political-cultural

– They both seem to have been exhausted by, & therefore have retreated from, the demanding heat of the intellectual-ethical-social dimension of being a Christian, to the more comfortable cool of a private-emotional-devotional piety…

– Joe, will you let Him wash (love, cleanse & heal) you?

– The ideal, the leader & the people

– Sermon
Vs.
Eucharist
Vs.
Icons

– One for whom “truth” has ceased to be a (primary) concern is no longer (fully) human!

– adequation

– Existence = things + experiences + ideas
Existentiality
Vs.
Essentialism

– Is it possible to live with absolute spontaneity, i.e. without being determined either by one’s own conscience/reason or by external contextual forces?

– No action is good or evil in itself. Ethics has to do only with understanding & evaluating the motives, reasons, circumstances, consequences, etc. associated with choices & behaviors.

– “Aged, but undiminished”
Perennial!

– Homer
Vs.
Socrates
Vs.
Aristotle

– Boethius’ consolations