What does it mean for my life, and our community life, to be a place where others meet God? The Biblical equivalent is to be a “living sacrifice”. It is a response. It is a call. It is primarily a place of being. It is about friendship, about allowing my life, our community life, to be a place where others can discover friendship with God. Our lives become a place in which friendship with God is initiated, or restored, or enhanced. It is about allowing space in my life, our lives, where others may come – invited or not – and discover God’s presence and reality in relationship.
Rennie D
25 June 2006
Sunday, June 25, 2006
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
problem "sorted"
The following just came in by email, and appealed to Rennie D's sense of humour:
After every flight, Qantas pilots fill out a form, called a "gripe sheet," which tells mechanics about problems with the aircraft. The mechanics correct the problems, document their repairs on the form, and then pilots review the gripe sheets before the next flight. Never let it be said that ground crews lack a sense of humour. Here are some actual maintenance complaints submitted by Qantas' pilots (marked with a P) and the solutions recorded (marked with an S) by maintenance engineers.
P: Left inside main tire almost needs replacement.
S: Almost replaced left inside main tire.
P: Test flight OK, except auto-land very rough.
S: Auto-land not installed on this aircraft.
P: Something loose in cockpit.
S: Something tightened in cockpit.
P: Dead bugs on windshield.
S: Live bugs on back-order.
P: Autopilot in altitude-hold mode produces a 200 feet per minute descent.
S: Cannot reproduce problem on ground.
P: Evidence of leak on right main landing gear.
S: Evidence removed.
P: DME volume unbelievably loud.
S: DME volume set to more believable level.
P: Friction locks cause throttle levers to stick.
S: That's what friction locks are for.
P: IFF inoperative in OFF mode.
S: IFF always inoperative in OFF mode.
P: Suspected crack in windshield.
S: Suspect you're right.
P: Number 3 engine missing.
S: Engine found on right wing after brief search.
P: Aircraft handles funny.
S: Aircraft warned to straighten up, fly right, and be serious.
P: Target radar hums.
S: Reprogrammed target radar with lyrics.
P: Mouse in cockpit.
S: Cat installed.
P: Noise coming from under instrument panel. Sounds like a midget pounding on something with a hammer.
S: Took hammer away from midget.
Rennie D
20 June 2006
After every flight, Qantas pilots fill out a form, called a "gripe sheet," which tells mechanics about problems with the aircraft. The mechanics correct the problems, document their repairs on the form, and then pilots review the gripe sheets before the next flight. Never let it be said that ground crews lack a sense of humour. Here are some actual maintenance complaints submitted by Qantas' pilots (marked with a P) and the solutions recorded (marked with an S) by maintenance engineers.
P: Left inside main tire almost needs replacement.
S: Almost replaced left inside main tire.
P: Test flight OK, except auto-land very rough.
S: Auto-land not installed on this aircraft.
P: Something loose in cockpit.
S: Something tightened in cockpit.
P: Dead bugs on windshield.
S: Live bugs on back-order.
P: Autopilot in altitude-hold mode produces a 200 feet per minute descent.
S: Cannot reproduce problem on ground.
P: Evidence of leak on right main landing gear.
S: Evidence removed.
P: DME volume unbelievably loud.
S: DME volume set to more believable level.
P: Friction locks cause throttle levers to stick.
S: That's what friction locks are for.
P: IFF inoperative in OFF mode.
S: IFF always inoperative in OFF mode.
P: Suspected crack in windshield.
S: Suspect you're right.
P: Number 3 engine missing.
S: Engine found on right wing after brief search.
P: Aircraft handles funny.
S: Aircraft warned to straighten up, fly right, and be serious.
P: Target radar hums.
S: Reprogrammed target radar with lyrics.
P: Mouse in cockpit.
S: Cat installed.
P: Noise coming from under instrument panel. Sounds like a midget pounding on something with a hammer.
S: Took hammer away from midget.
Rennie D
20 June 2006
Sunday, June 18, 2006
virtue a stumbling block
Yesterday I participated in the funeral of a person whose life was driven by her Christian faith, and difficult circumstance had taught her selflessness. Her selflessness, though, was precisely what caused her death, and disabled her friends and church community in their care for her. Her recent life, and even more recent death, highlights the chaos and confusion of life: we seek holiness, only to find our virtue is our stumbling point.
Western thought tends to follow a linear approach, which remains valuable while we experience progress and success in life, but falls radically short when we experience breakdown and failure. Hebrew (Biblical), and often African, thought patterns are more circular, and allow for more rich responses when life falls short of our dreams and hopes, and especially when life leaves us broken and destroyed. We need to see both success and failure as growth, and it is only in returning to our starting point that we can truly perceive the value of the journey. A linear approach to thought and life does not allow this, because it expects us to reach a different point, and end point dissimilar to our origin. A more circular approach allows, even creates, space for reflection. It allows, too, for our virtues to find counter-point in our vice, and vice in our virtue; and rather than condemnation, hope for the next journey.
Rennie D
18 June 2006
Western thought tends to follow a linear approach, which remains valuable while we experience progress and success in life, but falls radically short when we experience breakdown and failure. Hebrew (Biblical), and often African, thought patterns are more circular, and allow for more rich responses when life falls short of our dreams and hopes, and especially when life leaves us broken and destroyed. We need to see both success and failure as growth, and it is only in returning to our starting point that we can truly perceive the value of the journey. A linear approach to thought and life does not allow this, because it expects us to reach a different point, and end point dissimilar to our origin. A more circular approach allows, even creates, space for reflection. It allows, too, for our virtues to find counter-point in our vice, and vice in our virtue; and rather than condemnation, hope for the next journey.
Rennie D
18 June 2006
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
should marriage be legislated?
The question asked is: does one need to have legislation, given the principle of marriage and hence the spirit in which one enters into it? The answer much depends on what one means by the “principle of marriage”. I would define marriage as a close, intimate, relationship that is officially recognised by society, in which two people (preferably one female and one male) love, care and support each other.
Society needs parameters if it is to function and remain healthy, and legislation is the easiest way of setting such boundaries. Legislation, as we discovered in Apartheid South Africa, can set parameters that create an unhealthy and unjust society. However, having no parameters leaves space for chaos. Legislation should protect the rights of the individual, as well as create a healthy space in which inter-societal relationships (including marital relationships) are formed and nurtured. Legislation does not prevent misuse or abuse within relationships, but it does set bench-marks as to appropriate behaviour.
In terms of marriage, ante-nuptial (or prenuptial) agreements are all about assets, not relationship. Hollywood utilises this instrument to ensure the less wealthy partner gains as much (or as little) as possible of the wealthy partner’s assets at breakdown. A more healthy approach is to utilise this instrument to protect the individuals within the relationship from forces outside of the relationship (such as one partner entering into business agreements, that if unsuccessful, may harm the other asset-wise). Couples who cohabit, but don’t “marry” in the eyes of the State or the Church, often draw up similar documents for similar reasons.
Marriage is both a relationship and an institution: as relationship it requires love, caring, support, empathy, selflessness, sacrifice, patience …; as institution it requires legislation.
Rennie D
14 June 2006
Society needs parameters if it is to function and remain healthy, and legislation is the easiest way of setting such boundaries. Legislation, as we discovered in Apartheid South Africa, can set parameters that create an unhealthy and unjust society. However, having no parameters leaves space for chaos. Legislation should protect the rights of the individual, as well as create a healthy space in which inter-societal relationships (including marital relationships) are formed and nurtured. Legislation does not prevent misuse or abuse within relationships, but it does set bench-marks as to appropriate behaviour.
In terms of marriage, ante-nuptial (or prenuptial) agreements are all about assets, not relationship. Hollywood utilises this instrument to ensure the less wealthy partner gains as much (or as little) as possible of the wealthy partner’s assets at breakdown. A more healthy approach is to utilise this instrument to protect the individuals within the relationship from forces outside of the relationship (such as one partner entering into business agreements, that if unsuccessful, may harm the other asset-wise). Couples who cohabit, but don’t “marry” in the eyes of the State or the Church, often draw up similar documents for similar reasons.
Marriage is both a relationship and an institution: as relationship it requires love, caring, support, empathy, selflessness, sacrifice, patience …; as institution it requires legislation.
Rennie D
14 June 2006
Sunday, June 04, 2006
reflections on pentecost
My Ascension/Pentecost journey of the last two weeks has been an insightful one:
Power
In his closing comments to his Disciples at the Ascension, Jesus promises them “all power” from above. At our recent Clergy Day in Lyttleton we were challenged to be “power hungry”, and it strikes me the reason the disciples staggered drunkenly around Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost is that they were “drunk with power”. These are concepts of power we normally see as negative due to the inherent misuse, even abuse, of power by politicians and others in positions of authority in government and civil society. However, the dictionary describes “power” as “the ability to act”, which from a Christian perspective is a God-given gift. As a child of God I need to hunger for a greater ability to act.
Spirit
The Hebrew word for “breath”, “wind” and “spirit” is a single word: Ruach. In Genesis 2 God forms the primeval Adam who remains but a clay form until the “breath of God” gives Adam life, symbolic of humanity’s gift of eternal life. The eternal nature of life is wasted and then lost in the disobedience of “the Fall”, but restored at Pentecost as the Spirit, or “breath of God”, overcomes the disciples, and their drunkenness is symbolic of their abundant experience of life and relationship with God in that moment, and the restoration of eternal life as a gift to humanity.
Tongues
The Pentecostal movement and subsequent Charismatic response in the Anglican Church with its emphasis on the gift itself, has taken the focus away from the important symbolic content of the event, the restoration of what was symbolically lost at Babel: the gift of communication with all people - that God may be made known to the Nations!
Rennie D
4 June 2006
Power
In his closing comments to his Disciples at the Ascension, Jesus promises them “all power” from above. At our recent Clergy Day in Lyttleton we were challenged to be “power hungry”, and it strikes me the reason the disciples staggered drunkenly around Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost is that they were “drunk with power”. These are concepts of power we normally see as negative due to the inherent misuse, even abuse, of power by politicians and others in positions of authority in government and civil society. However, the dictionary describes “power” as “the ability to act”, which from a Christian perspective is a God-given gift. As a child of God I need to hunger for a greater ability to act.
Spirit
The Hebrew word for “breath”, “wind” and “spirit” is a single word: Ruach. In Genesis 2 God forms the primeval Adam who remains but a clay form until the “breath of God” gives Adam life, symbolic of humanity’s gift of eternal life. The eternal nature of life is wasted and then lost in the disobedience of “the Fall”, but restored at Pentecost as the Spirit, or “breath of God”, overcomes the disciples, and their drunkenness is symbolic of their abundant experience of life and relationship with God in that moment, and the restoration of eternal life as a gift to humanity.
Tongues
The Pentecostal movement and subsequent Charismatic response in the Anglican Church with its emphasis on the gift itself, has taken the focus away from the important symbolic content of the event, the restoration of what was symbolically lost at Babel: the gift of communication with all people - that God may be made known to the Nations!
Rennie D
4 June 2006
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