Central Methodist Mission

As has been our custom over the past three years — we show a movie on the evening of Palm Sunday — next Sunday at 7 p.m.

This year we will be showing Of God’s and men. 

It is about eight French Christian monks who live in harmony with their Muslim friends in a monastery perched in the mountains of North Africa, in the 1990s. When a crew of foreign workers is massacred by a religious fundamentalist group, fear sweeps through the region.

The army offers them protection, but the monks refuse. Should they leave? Despite the growing menace in their midst, they slowly realise that they have no choice but to …

This film is loosely based on the life of the Cistercian monks of Tibhirine in Algeria, from 1993 — 1996.

It is slow moving — heavy and inspiring, dark and enlightening all at once. One reviewer, Philip Martin, wrote:

… a movie that made me sad and proud to be human, to belong to a species capable of such cruelty and such kindness, and possessed of the power to choose to love those who hate us, and to die with peace in our hearts as the world burns down.

 Another wrote: I can’t recall the last film that so wholly, honestly and movingly explained what it means to be a Christian.

 Alan

Equal Education is an NGO of great importance in our country. I would go so far as to say that the future well-being of our country rests on whether its agenda is accepted and implemented nationwide. Their recent campaign includes the development of “Norms and Standards for School Infrastructure”. In short our schools need fixing.

Of our 24 793 public schools, these are the current backlogs:

3 544 schools (14%) have no electricity supply, while 804 schools (3%) have an unreliable supply.

2 402 schools (10%) have no water supply, while a further 2 611 schools (11%) have an unreliable water supply.

22 304 schools (90%) do not have stocked Computer Centres.

11 450 Schools (46%) still use pit-latrine toilets while 913 schools (4%) have no toilet facilities at all.

22 938 schools (93%) do not have stocked and functioning libraries.

23 562 schools (95%) do not have stocked laboratories.

[Stats from the National Education Infrastructure Management System Report, Department of Basic Education 2011].

If you would like more information about ways in which you can help, contact Equal Education 021 387 0022 or at www.equaleducation.org.za

Alan

Words and their meanings are important. Sometimes a word carries different meanings and associations for different people, which is one of the things that we were reminded of at “The Jesus School” this past week. Take for example the word ‘sin’. What comes to your mind? How would you define it?

Nadia Bolz-Weber (a Lutheran pastor) has this to say about sin:

“I love to talk about sin, which makes little sense to people who want to label me as a liberal. I think perhaps that actual liberals equate admitting we are sinful with having low self-esteem. And then the conservatives equate sin with immorality (only sometimes do sin and immorality converge). So one end of the church tells us that sin is an antiquated notion that only makes us feel bad about ourselves so we should avoid mentioning it at all. While the other end of the church tells us that sin is the same as immorality and totally avoidable if you are just a good, squeaky clean Christian. But when sin is boiled down to low self-esteem and immorality then it becomes something we can control or limit in some way, rather than something we are in bondage to. The reality is that I cannot free myself from the bondage of self. I cannot keep from being turned in on self. I cannot by my own understanding or effort disentangle myself from my self-interest, and when I think that I can … I am trying to do what is only God’s to do.

To me, there is actually great hope in admitting my mortality and brokenness because then I finally lay aside my sin management program and allow God to be God for me. Which is all any of us really need when it comes down to it.”

There are other words within the Christian lexicon like salvation, repentance, eternal life, hell, heaven, justice, neighbour, life, death … that all invite our exploration.

Alan

Ash Wednesday marked the beginning of Lent — the period of 40 days that precedes Easter (excluding Sundays which remain forever days of resurrection celebration). 40 days is the great Biblical metaphor for new life — hinting towards the 40 weeks of a woman’s pregnancy reaching full-term. Lent is therefore an invitation for us to be open to conceive, labour and birth new life. In doing so, we fulfill our calling to imitate Jesus who came to bring new and abundant life.

This is why confession has always gone hand-in-hand with Lent. Confession is the courage to wrestle with the truth of our lives in the presence of another. Not so that they may forgive us — but that they may help us to accept the truth of our lives, as well as to accept the already-available forgiveness of God. You see, we can only fully confess (dare to touch the truth of our life) if we know that we are already fully forgiven. The grace of knowing that we are held is what sets us free to vulnerably let go. Only when I know that I am loved can I face the unlovable-ness of who I am.

Before we ask God to reveal to us our sin (our addictive self-centeredness) let us ask God to reveal to us God’s grace.

Defining sin as “addictive self-centeredness” reminds us that there are areas of our living that are uncontrollably dependent on that which is killing us (and others). And please let us not reduce addiction to alcohol and other drugs — some of us are addicted to blaming, exaggerating, working, interfering, controlling, gossiping and the like … all destructive in their own way. To give up any addiction feels like we are dying. So let us pray for God to remind us that birth may often feel like death. It is Lent — it is time to get pregnant.

Alan

Jesus said: “I am the way, the truth and the life”. In other words, to follow Jesus is to live in a particular way that honours truth more than anything else. Jesus did not say: “I am the way, the peace/provider/safety and the life”. If he had said this then we would be excused for shaping our lives around acquiring peace, material comfort and safety, which is what so many of us do. (We only have to reflect on the content of our prayers to see whether this is true or not.)

The truthful way is the Jesus-way. Therefore the truth-full way is the life-enabling/life-giving/life-receiving/life-creating way. The promise of the Jesus-way or the truth-full way, is LIFE. Truthful living brings life — life before death, and after. And when we experience this life — this abundant life — conceived, laboured and birthed — by truth-full living, then true peace is given to us (even in the midst of conflict), and material comfort becomes more immaterial, while safety is exchanged for salvation — which is (among other things) the liberation from the fear that provokes our need for safety in the first place.

Not only is truth-full living loyalty to Jesus — but it is also the highest loyalty we can offer others, organisations institutions, our country and world, as a whole. With this I conclude with a quote:

“Loyalty that hides problematic conduct is a false loyalty, for it elevates reputation over reality, and esteems image over character. Though we may believe we are acting to protect the institution, in reality we do the institution and individuals far greater damage …” John I. Jenkins

 Alan