Four questions when there is to be one

This blog has a run of reporting bad preaching. Even the Sydney Anglicans can sadly fail (as linked). I contemplated writing a post on the Budde sermon to the newly elected President Trump yet another captured my thoughts entirely (as linked).

St John’s Anglican Cathedral in Brisbane serves up many sermons. The Rev’d Dr Ann Solari on the 5th January 2025 preached a sermon titled: “Giving the Gifts away: The Epiphany of the Lord”. As is a feature of many sermons of that church, Solari concluded the sermon with a question to her audience. Let’s examine that question from the published sermon on the church’s website:

“This story of the wise ones does however raise an interesting question.

If Jesus was given these valuable gifts as a small child how come he did he end up with nothing?

Did Jesus do what he asked the rich young man to do?

Did Jesus give all that he had to the poor?

What does this say to us?

Amen”

Screenshot from St John's Anglican Cathedral website

On 5 January 2025 many may have still been recovering from Christmas and New Year hangover. Simple mathematic calculations are often difficult with a cloudy head. Yet, the “interesting question” was not one question but instead “interesting questions”. Where the count should be one, it is four. Very Monty Pythonesque!

Putting aside the grammar of the first question one’s head spins at the connection within the sermon between that first question and the wonderful words that were included in respect to the gift of myrrh. For the preacher correctly identified the myrrh as a pointer to Christ’s early death. So, counter to the question's notion that has the listener pondering why Jesus ended up with nothing, the gifts indicated that Jesus would end up with nothing.

The second question is a puzzle in that rich young man is not previously mentioned in the sermon. Does the preacher assume her audience to be telepathic? If it is a reference to the story in Matthew 19:16-22 one wonders how Jesus is to follow himself :“If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”

The sermon is a failure. It is a failure in that the preacher has asked questions that are either dubious or which will lead to ambiguous or inconsistent application by the listeners. It offers questions at a moment in the sermon where applications are expected. It is a failure of oratory form - awkward questions left hanging in the air - that cannot be concluded successfully away from the pulpit. The questions are absent solid answers and sound applications; they do not keep to the pattern of sound teaching (Paul's instruction to Timothy).

The only appropriate response of the discerning pewsitter is to robustly indicate that they had been short-changed; that they expect well-rounded sermons starting from the very next week.

Shalom,

Ozhamada

Honeysuckle Creek – The story of Tom Reid, A little Dish and Neil Armstrong’s First Step - problem solved #2

This post solves a mathematic problem on Page 32 of the non-fiction book: “Honeysuckle Creek – The story of Tom Reid, A little Dish and Neil Armstrong’s First Step”, Andrew Tink, 2018

Problem: An object 2cm, high is held at a distance of 60cm from a convex lens of focal length of 20cm. Find the nature, position, and size of the image.

1. Given:

• Object height (h₁) = 2 cm
• Object distance (u) = -60 cm (negative sign convention)
• Focal length (f) = 20 cm

2. Find Image Distance (v):

• Use the lens formula: 1/f = 1/v - 1/u
• Substitute the given values: 1/20 = 1/v - 1/(-60)
• Simplify: 1/20 = 1/v + 1/60
• 1/v = 1/20 - 1/60
• 1/v = (3 - 1) / 60
• 1/v = 2/60
• v = 60/2
• v = 30 cm

3. Find Image Height (h₂):

• Use the magnification formula: h₂/h₁ = -v/u
• Substitute the values: h₂/2 = -30/(-60)
• h₂/2 = 1/2
• h₂ = 1 cm

4. Determine Nature of Image:

• Since the image distance (v) is positive, the image is real.
• The magnification (h₂/h₁) is positive and less than 1, so the image is inverted and diminished.

Therefore:

• The image is real, inverted, and diminished.
• The image is formed 30 cm from the lens on the opposite side of the object.
• The image height is 1 cm.

Shalom,

Ozhamada

Honeysuckle Creek – The story of Tom Reid, A little Dish and Neil Armstrong’s First Step - problem solved #1

This post solves a mathematic problem on Page 32 of the non-fiction book: “Honeysuckle Creek – The story of Tom Reid, A little Dish and Neil Armstrong’s First Step”, Andrew Tink, 2018

Problem: P and Q are points of tangents OP and OQ drawn to a circle whose centre is C; PC and OQ are produced to meet in L; QC and OP are produced to meet in M. Prove that LM is parallel to PQ.

1. Understand the problem:

• We have a circle with centre C.
• OP and OQ are tangents to the circle from an external point O.
• PC is extended to point L.
• QC is extended to point M.
• We need to prove that LM is parallel to PQ.

2. Visualize the problem:

circle with tangents OP and OQ, center C, and points L and M

3. Key concepts:

• Tangents to a circle: A tangent to a circle is a line that touches the circle at exactly one point.
• Radius and tangent: The radius drawn to the point of tangency is perpendicular to the tangent.
• Parallel lines: Two lines are parallel if their corresponding angles are equal.

4. Proof:

• Step 1: Since OP and OQ are tangents to the circle, we know that:
• ∠OPC = 90° (radius perpendicular to tangent)
• ∠OQC = 90° (radius perpendicular to tangent)
• Step 2: Consider triangles OPC and OQC:
• OP = OQ (tangents from an external point to a circle are equal)
• OC is common to both triangles
• ∠OPC = ∠OQC = 90° (proved in step 1)

Therefore, triangles OPC and OQC are congruent by the Hypotenuse-Leg (HL) congruence theorem.

• Step 3: Since triangles OPC and OQC are congruent:
• ∠PCO = ∠QCO (corresponding angles of congruent triangles)
• Step 4: Consider angles ∠PCO and ∠QCM:
• ∠PCO + ∠QCM = 180° (linear pair)

Therefore, ∠QCM = 180° - ∠PCO

• Step 5: Similarly, consider angles ∠QCO and ∠PCM:
• ∠QCO + ∠PCM = 180° (linear pair)

Therefore, ∠PCM = 180° - ∠QCO

• Step 6: Since ∠PCO = ∠QCO (proved in step 3):
• ∠QCM = ∠PCM
• Step 7: In triangles QCM and PCM:
• ∠QCM = ∠PCM (proved in step 6)
• CM is common to both triangles

Therefore, triangles QCM and PCM are congruent by the Angle-Side-Angle (ASA) congruence theorem.

• Step 8: Since triangles QCM and PCM are congruent:
• ∠QMC = ∠PMC (corresponding angles of congruent triangles)
• Step 9: Since ∠QMC = ∠PMC, we can conclude that LM is parallel to PQ (alternate interior angles are equal).

Therefore, we have proved that LM is parallel to PQ.

Shalom,

Ozhamada

Two vehicle-ramming attacks and risk mitigations

It is chilling to return from Christmas leave to learn of two vehicle-ramming attacks. Motor vehicles are a study in risk/reward - they offer us mobility and convenience yet they also can cause carnage. Over Christmas time road and emergency authorities alert the public of the risk of vehicle accidents yet vehicle-ramming attacks highlight the risk that vehicles will be used as weapons.

Timely to the two vehicle-ramming events is a reminder to ensure that risk mitigation measures for public street events include the installation of temporary vehicle barriers. Naturally, there needs to be a balanced measure of implementation of the vehicle barriers in that emergency vehicle access needs to be provided for.

Another risk mitigation measure is to control vehicle movements to scheduled bump-in/bump-out times.

Here is a brief summary of the two vehicle-ramming attacks. I have been cautious in excluding any comment about the rogue actors ethnicity, country of birth or radicalisation, however, it is noteworthy that in both instance the rogue actors had publicly expressed, by social media, in the year prior to the event, intentions to end their lives in a manner that would harm others.

Table 1: Summary of recent vehicle-ramming attacks

Note: A vehicle-ramming attack is an assault in which a perpetrator deliberately rams a vehicle into a building, multiple people, or another vehicle. The count of dead and injured is accurate at 3 January 2025 at the time of publishing this article.

Shalom,

Ozhamada

#NewOrleansAttack

#carattack

#magdeburg

#germany