Bishop John

(post title from Miranda Wilding)

I was still upset by the plight of the recent ‘boat people’ incident and the lack of concern among Australians for these ‘underdogs’ when I heard coming from the family computer Susan Boyle singing, ‘I Dreamed a Dream’ from the musical ‘Les Miserables’. I was transfixed. I could not move from my wife’s side as we listened together. We listened to her three times! Tears welled in my eyes as this so-called ‘frumpy, middle aged, unemployed woman’ just did it! Just sang. What unexpected joy. What satisfaction. What dream come true.

Susan Boyle’s triumph on ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ is a story of self-sacrifice, of care for her widowed mother until her mother’s death two years ago at 91 years of age. During these years, church work, choir and village were Susan Boyle’s interests.

The story line is indeed a ‘mini opera’. The ‘mini opera’ opens with the skepticism of the judges and the sniggering of the audience sending a deadening blanket of disbelief upon her stage entry. But the ordinariness and nervousness of the singer and the cynicism of the audience and judges gives way to wonder as the singer sings. As her voice fills the auditorium there is hush, then jubilant applause, the judges’ awed acclamations and their gut-wrenchingly honest self-criticism of their initial reactions to her. A triumph indeed.

Truly, ‘a mini opera of underdog triumph’.

May our concern for the underdog ever be thus, and may we ever expect such concern, recognize it and support it: whether the underdog be a frumpy singing Scot or an asylum seeking Afghan.

May there be many more mini operas of underdog triumph.

Links

The YouTube clip ‘Susan Boyle – Singer – Britains Got Talent 2009 (With Lyrics)’ has over 40 million views. Extraordinary!

Miranda Wilding’s excellent comment.

‘Don’t judge someone by looks alone, says TV sensation’ by Charlene Sweeny.

There’s something about Death Notices. Consider Tasmanian Sir Marcus Loane, an outstanding Christian and leader of the Church. So, what would be included in his Death Notice?

I appreciated the family Death Notice being so thoroughly Christian, as befitted the man’s life. Sydney Morning Herald April 15 2009, page 30:-

“Forever with the Lord”
“Until the day break
and the shadows flee away”

My mother’s Death Notice, reflected her commitment to Christ:

“Oh Triune God of my mother, we follow You.”

and

“Abiding with Jesus,
Till we meet in his arms.”

When in Singapore I have noted that in the Straits Times the Obituary Notices of Christian people include a Bible verse or statement of Christian faith, e.g.,

“Went home to be with the Lord Jesus.”

These notices honour the deceased person and proclaim Christ – a good way to farewell our brothers and sisters in Christ.

I am currently writing a prayer for Pentecost.
(The Day of Pentecost: last Sunday of Easter, also called Whit Sunday. Readings Acts 2:1-21; Psalm 104: 26-36; Romans 8:22-27; John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15)

The prayer is to be part of an inspirational brochure to be distributed in parishes on the Day of Pentecost, 31 May 2009. The brochure will also appear on the web and maybe in a shorter version – Tralee! Tralaa! on YouTube!  Now, back to the prayer. 🙂

In the Bible we find little warrant for directing prayer to the Holy Spirit. Prayers are to God, the intimacy of ‘Abba, Father’ in Jesus’ Gethsemane prayer (Mark 14:36) and his encouragement to the disciples to pray, ‘Our Father in heaven’ (Mt 6:9). There are some prayers to Jesus Christ in Acts (7:59 of Stephen) and the Epistles (2 Cor 12:8 of Paul; 1 Peter 1:3 of Peter). But there are neither prayers to the Holy Spirit nor examples of people praying to the Holy Spirit, although there is praying by Christians in the Spirit (Eph 6:18) and the Spirit praying in Christians (Rom 8:26).  Overwhelmingly, Christian prayer is ‘to the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit’.

Graham Cole in a chapter, ‘Ought we to pray to the Holy Spirit?’ in ‘Engaging with the Holy Spirit’, Apollos, England, 2007, concludes (p.72) with these words,

‘Christians may indeed pray to the Spirit. Our God is Triune.  … We must not allow (however) systematic theology, working from first principles, to trump biblical theology  … That biblical theology shows that the Spirit’s ministry is a floodlight one.  … (The Spirit) directs our gaze elsewhere (away from itself) in the adoration of God. In so doing, the practice of prayer to the Father through the Son with the assistance of the Spirit encapsulates the gospel of the one mediator between God and humankind, the man Jesus Christ, who gave himself as a ransom for us all and poured out the Holy Spirit on that singular Pentecost so that we might be caught up in the Son’s own communion – as our Lord, Saviour and elder brother in the household of God – with the Father.’

And so to my Pentecost prayer!  The current draft, there have been many, opens with the address:

Abba, Father,
you sent your Holy Spirit
in wind and fire at Pentecost,
empowering the disciples
to proclaim with boldness
the revolution (transforming life) of your love in Christ,
giving birth to your church.

I’ll let you know the final version.

On Good Friday the Tasmanian print media publish Easter reflections written by church leaders. The reflections themselves provide an interesting theological smorgasbord for BBQ conversation.  (I cannot find them on the Mercury, Examiner or Advocate websites this Saturday!?- I guess you need to have purchased the newspaper.)  My reflection is at  www.anglicantas.org.au

Advertisements for worship services are placed in the newspapers and the Anglican collection was a veritable treasure trove – marvelous!

On Thursday lunchtime following the Cathedral Service of foot washing and reaffirmation of ordination vows, I walked to the Elizabeth Mall to participate in the launch of the combined churches’ Awakening Easter activities. The following day, Good Friday, the Mercury published a great photo of the children’s choir and an informative article about the Easter prayers collected from around Tasmania to be used at Good Friday prayer vigils. Two TV stations interviewed me but I did not see the TV News so do not know how they turned out. I was asked among other things about Good Friday football and whether Australians’ increasing chocolate consumption was a form of consolation or comfort in difficult times.

I am never too sure what the TV station editors will cut and patch from my interviews with other materials that they have gathered for a particular day or theme. Whenever possible I make myself available to the media. Given the demands of travelling throughout Tasmania I am not always readily available to the TV crews.
Of the different forms of media I have come to prefer ‘live to air’ radio; it is personal (people can hear emotion and intonation), direct and unedited (you live with your mistakes!).

After the Good Friday worship service at the Cathedral I spoke to a TV crew on the meaning of Good Friday. They also interviewed worshippers for their comments. On watching the TV news that evening the overall reporting on the Christian celebration was positive and I was delighted with the comments of the two worshippers. I was appalled, however, when the TV News cut my own comment to, “(Easter) is about relationships”. In the actual interview I had completed the idea, “(Easter) is about  relationships, our relationship with God and our relationship with our neighbour”. I find poor reporting/editing like this misleading and unfair. It’s very frustrating.

Mind you, I should have been prepared for such problems. My Good Friday sermon tackled our human perversity and rebelliousness against God and its consequent destructive effect on human relationships.  I will write up my currently ineligible sermon notes for posting.   [Edit: these are now available]

On Saturday the front page of the Mercury newspaper cried out: ‘Church blasts good Friday footy’, with a photograph of a crowd enjoying their footy! What a contrast: pick the good blokes and the bad blokes?! How subtle! Clearly a critical comment on the churches. In wondered as I turned the newspaper pages (Yes, I persevered in my reading) what else I would find about the churches. Would there be anything in the newspaper about the profound Good Friday worship experiences of the Tasmanian Christian community? After all, on the previous day, this same newspaper had carried advertisements of many creative and engaging church services. Any news of these Tasmanians at worship? No. Not one word.

Ironically in the same newspaper under the heading, ‘Flawed Public Service Beyond Belief’, Sue Neales presents an excellent analysis of ‘LESSONS in good governance (which) come along all too infrequently in Tasmanian politics’. Her article concludes:

“If public trust in the pillars of government and governance in Tasmania is to be restored — as Mr Bartlett promised on his ascension to the top job last May — there is no time to delay.”

This call is very ‘Good Friday-ish’, if I may say so. That is, we have a problem and we need a solution, even redemption.

As the saying goes, “It’s Friday, but Sunday’s coming!”

Under the banner, “Into the Future: Building for eternity following the way of Christ” the Anglican Parish of St Mark’s Deloraine celebrated its 150th Birthday, 1859 – 2009, on 28 March. It was a great weekend.

The faithful lives and ministries of men and women, boys and girls, was remembered with gratitude and affection through worship, personal testimonies, a magnificent historical display and a beautiful specially produced A3 sized magazine ‘Saint Mark’s Times 1803-2009’. Fantastic! Congratulations to all concerned. We also prayed God’s blessings through the beautiful new rectory and we pray for a rector to lead the parish into the next 150 years.

• A precious memory of Joyce Blazely’s: “Grace is the undeserved and unearned presence of God in our lives”. This was Bishop Blackwood’s reply to her question, “What do we mean by grace?”
• Also, two parishioners, a married couple, remembering kneeling together to pray a commitment asking Jesus to come into their lives, in front of the TV broadcast of the Billy Graham crusade.  Praise the Lord!
• The history reminded us that the Parish’s purpose was to proclaim the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
• Knowing laughter greeted a marvelous recollection of an eminent layman who comforted a rector struggling with criticism from parishioners upset at changes being introduced, with these words, “The good Lord couldn’t please everybody. You’ve got no hope!”
• Carlyle shared, “Bishop Blackwood introduced me to Christ.”
• As the current President of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK) Australia, I was delighted to discover that SPCK supplied the first Prayer Book to the Parish.
• The family links through the generations were of real encouragement for us to follow Jesus and to keep on following Jesus.

At worship on Sunday we asked that as St Mark’s Deloraine moved “Into the Future”, the opening words of The Gospel According to Mark would continue to be the Parish’s words and life in their community: The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

May it be so in the transforming love of the Holy Spirit.