Learning from our Teacher

Just finished a service at my church that was both our Education Sunday Service, where we pray for the schools in our area (including the pupils who are about to embark on the iniquitous and seemingly unending 11+ tests in the month ahead) and a baptism service...

It seemed like a good combination at the time, but as it turned out I had some difficult things to say, off the back of today's lectionary reading from Mark 10: 46-52 where Bartimaeus (whose name means Son of the Unclean one) encounters this Rabbi from Nazareth... Anyway, I won't go into the details of what I had to say except that it was largely around our reluctance to move on, to truly follow Jesus, and learn from him as our teacher or rabbi.

But then I came home to find this piece by Kim Fabricius over on Connexions, where he concludes...

Over 25 years ago I bought a book. I revisit it so often that the pages are falling out. It’s called "What Prevents Christian Adults from Learning." There is, the author suggests, a constellation of obstructions to learning: the need to be right, the fear of being wrong, the security of the known, the pain of un-learning, the hard work of re-thinking, the disturbance of dissonance, the ubiquity of distraction. Quite a challenging agenda. As a teacher, the author has been working at it his entire career. As a minister I’ve tried too. The author’s name is John Hull. The book is full of insight. The thing is: John Hull is blind. But he sees. Do we?

Shalom

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A Woman of no Distinction

Don't often post other people's stuff here... But I found this so powerful that I thought I should. It's a performance poem based on John 4: 4-30, and I have attached the original YouTube video below. A word for women, and men, everywhere... "to be known is to be loved, and to be loved is to be known." I am a woman of no distinction of little importance. I am a women of no reputation save that which is bad. You whisper as I pass by and cast judgmental glances, Though you don’t really take the time to look at me, Or even get to know me. For to be known is to be loved, And to be loved is to be known. Otherwise what’s the point in doing either one of them in the first place? I WANT TO BE KNOWN. I want someone to look at my face And not just see two eyes, a nose, a mouth and two ears; But to see all that I am, and could be all my hopes, loves and fears. But that’s too much to hope for, to wish for, or pray for So I don’t, not anymore. Now I keep to myself And by that

Psalm for Harvest Sunday

A short responsive psalm for us as a call to worship on Harvest Thanksgiving Sunday, and given that it was pouring with rain as I headed into church this morning the first line is an important remembrance that the rain we moan about is an important component of the fruitfulness of the land we live in: You tend the land and water it And the earth produces its abundance. You crown each year with your bounty, and our storehouses overflow with your goodness. The mountain meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are filled with corn; Your people celebrate your boundless grace They shout for joy and sing. from Psalm 65

Living under the Empire... (2) Where is Babylon?

We were driving back from school last week, talking about books that we had been reading and my younger son, Ciaran, asked me "Where is Babylon?" I have to confess that my history is better than my geography, and I said that it no longer exists as an inhabited city, but its ruins were to the north west of the current capital of Iraq, Baghdad. When I checked however, I discovered that it is actually about 50 miles south of Baghdad and the modern town is the administrative centre of the province of Babil... But just as the modern city is but a shadow of the historic capital of 2 ancient empires, first under Hammurabi in the 18th century BCE and then the "Neo-Babylonian" empire (under Nebuchadnezzar etc) in the 6th century BCE, so the earthly Babylonian empire/s was/were fleeting in comparison to the enduring metaphorical idea of Babylon. The original Empire under Hammurabi was probably the ultimate origin of some of the early Biblical stories, including the &quo

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