{"id":12992,"date":"2012-12-22T07:02:40","date_gmt":"2012-12-21T20:02:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/?p=12992"},"modified":"2012-12-20T22:31:46","modified_gmt":"2012-12-20T11:31:46","slug":"school-chaplains-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/2012\/12\/22\/school-chaplains-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"School Chaplain&#8217;s Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Christmas from Revd Canon Matt Gray, the Chaplain of The Hutchins School, Hobart:<\/p>\n<p>Lately we have been talking about our technology strategies a lot so I thought we might follow the BYOD theme. I have been showing a clever clip telling the Christmas story using social media.\u00a0 It goes like this:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Google Earth <\/strong>locates Nazareth for us<\/li>\n<li>Gabriel sends an <strong>SMS text <\/strong>to Mary for the annunciation which she passes to Joseph in a panicky highlighted <strong>email<\/strong>: \u201cJoseph we need to talk\u201d<\/li>\n<li><strong>Google maps <\/strong>looks for directions to Bethlehem \u2013 ticking the \u201cavoid Romans\u201d box<\/li>\n<li>Joseph books a donkey <strong>online with Hertz <\/strong>and searches limited accommodation eventually settling on \u201cstable\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Joseph <strong>twitters <\/strong>the birth of Jesus with a picture \u2013 it gets \u2018000s of Likes.<\/li>\n<li>The wise men book an event on <strong>Facebook <\/strong>called \u201cmeet the baby\u201d \u2013 twittering #worshipthebaby<\/li>\n<li>The wise men buy their gifts from <strong>Amazon<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Finally the video of the event is uploaded onto <strong>YouTube<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>View the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=GkHNNPM7pJA\">clip here<\/a> if you are interested.<\/p>\n<p>The events surrounding Jesus\u2019 birth are such a strange mixture of the mundane and the extraordinary. The clip emphasises this by illustrating the way God breaks in to our experience. We plod through the daily grind or the busyness of the moment.<\/p>\n<p>We are often encouraged to take hold of the moment \u2013 to seize the day \u2013 <em>carpe diem<\/em>. The movie <em>Dead Poets\u2019 Society<\/em> gave immense popularity to this phrase as a banner for life. The original phrase is from Horace \u2013 he did not trust the gods of his age, erratic and unknowable gods who could not be relied upon or understood in any way. Therefore, seize the day meant trusting as little as possible in the future.<\/p>\n<p>But what a change came over that landscape in just one century! The Incarnation \u2013 the story of Christmas \u2013 is that God came down to us. He became one of us and experienced all the limitations, sufferings and humiliations, as well as the joys and triumphs of a human life.<\/p>\n<p>The message was that God has a plan for us: the future is not to be feared or ignored, but embraced as a gift of God. As is the day. Rather than seizing the day like it is some wild animal in need of taming, the chaos and futility of the future has been rejected. There is now meaning in every moment. God has an ultimate purpose and a plan for us. We will not always get it or understand it but we can know that the future is guided by an all-powerful presence, both loving and good. How can we know? Is this just \u2018pie in the sky when you die\u2019 optimism.<\/p>\n<p>The answer is in the Christmas story \u2013 God did not just give us a greeting card sentiment but a man who lived and died and defeated death that we might see and know that a future has been won for us. There is no need to fear, whether it is the past, the present or the future. God has assured it if we will just trust him. So rather than seize the day I want to offer some alternatives.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Transform the day &#8211; transfigurare die<\/li>\n<li>Enjoy the day \u2013 frui die<\/li>\n<li>Receive the day \u2013 diem recipere<\/li>\n<li>Trust the day \u2013 confidere die<\/li>\n<li>Have a wonderful Christmas day \u2013 glorious Dei<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Reverend Canon Matthew Gray, <strong>Chaplain<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Christmas from Revd Canon Matt Gray, the Chaplain of The Hutchins School, Hobart: Lately we have been talking about our technology strategies a lot so I thought we might follow the BYOD theme. I have been showing a clever clip &hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/2012\/12\/22\/school-chaplains-christmas\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12992"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12992"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12992\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13071,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12992\/revisions\/13071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}