Blasphemy when character is called for

I lodged a complaint against a member of Australian Anglican clergy.

The complaint forms as a breach of the church’s code. The code document is named Faithfulness in Service. The complaint is to the clergy’s use of offensive language. Faithfulness in Service includes a definition of offensive language. Offensive language includes blasphemy. The complaint therefore is to blasphemy.

The blasphemous words were uttered in the sermon of a June 2023 service that was readily available upon the church’s Facebook page and/or its YouTube page. I accessed the service via Facebook.

The words were:

"I shudder at his [Paul] diagnosis that suffering produces endurance. Suffering doesn't produce endurance. Suffering produces destruction....to be quite frank, it is absolute nonsense".

As I did not wish to labour the church’s complaints unit (Professional Standards Unit) of my finding in blasphemy I simply offered that I found that the words:

 

“Irreverently treat God's Holy Word (Romans 5).”

 

While I was silent in my complaint as to other utterances in the sermon, it is of note that the preacher followed the utterance with the words: “I hope that Saint Paul in heaven has gotten over it”. In the sermon of the following week another reference to Saint Paul was: “I always thought that Saint Paul needed a psychiatrist”.

The blasphemous words form a denial of God’s Holy Word. It is insufficient to see the words simply as a critique of the writings of Saint Paul as one must counter how the Holy Spirit inspire the entire canon of the Bible. Therefore, to deny any part of the Bible – to call any part of it “absolute nonsense” - is very grave indeed.

There is a wealth in Romans that lend readily to a very generous preaching of the Romans 5 text. The text is a mere clipped ticket if one tackles only the Suffering > Endurance relationship. The text calls for the whole measure to be preached: Suffering > Endurance > Character > Hope.

The complaint yielded little real benefit. It was of little benefit in the sense that I was throwing stones from afar when the congregation should have thrown stones. Congregants armoured of discernment are best addressing an errant Rector locally. 

For, it was a Sydney Anglican Rector who once told me this joke:

“In some churches the Rector can only be rid of if he:

i)                    speaks heresy,

ii)                   goes insane, or

iii)                 dies.

In some churches all three happen and still no-one notices”.

 

Shalom,

Ozhamada

#church, #anglicans, #bible, #sermon, #homiletics, #blasphemy, #character, #hope,#endurance, #complaint

Questions, novel "Feed"

 A child is currently completing her final year of secondary school. An assigned novel; Feed, by M.T. Anderson, was lying around the house. In a mode that led to these questions linked, I offer these comprehension questions of Feed:

 

1. Given what happened to Violet, why would anyone voluntarily accept the Feed implant? What pressures are there in society to motivate someone to accept the Feed implant?
2. If man fools with nature there tends to be consequences. There are benefits to the Feed, but also costs. What costs are there to those who accept the feed?
3. In what movies, or cartoons, have upcars been depicted? How would traffic rules need to change to allow for upcar traffic?
4. Think of new jobs that may be required to allow for the Feed to operate and for the feed to be maintained. Write a job advertisement for such a job.
5. In Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, the characters have lupus. In Feed, the characters have lesions. What are the authors of such novels trying to convey when such diseases are present in an otherwise pristine world?
6. Are Titus and his friends slaves? If so, who are they slaves too?
7. Did Titus and his friends use their Feed downtime in the hospital on the moon wisely? How may have they have made better use of that time?
8. Very late in the novel Titus finds that he cannot will a light globe to turn on. How in the future will we distinguish from what is connected to the internet of things to that which is not?
9. What is the irony of the novel ending with the repeated advertising slogan: "Everything must go"?
10. Violet's father begs Titus to go be with the Eloi (a post-human race). In what ways is Titus post-human (for example: think of how little Titus understands of the technology that he uses).

Shalom,

Ozhamada

Questions Fahrenheit 451

Fahrenheit 451 was set as a novel, by a school, for our household. I enjoyed reading the novel and set these questions for her consideration.

   

In what way was the book first published? Who was the publisher? In what ways is that fitting of a book that addresses fire?

What is the difference between family and “family”? How does the character Mildred illustrate the difference?

What is Denham's Dentifrice? Why is it so bothersome to Montag? In the episode where Denham’s Dentifrice is introduced what does the reader learn about the community in which Montag lives?

Name two animals that the Mechanical Hound is an amalgam of. What makes the Mechanical hound so effective?

How are books described (identify at least five descriptors)? What does Faber convey as most lost through the destruction of books?

What role does Clarisse play? What is unusual about Montag and Clarisse’s first encounter?

At the end of the novel what distinction is drawn between city and country? How is that distinction evident today? Is city more associated with control than country?

At the end of the novel how is Montag given another chance at life? How will he use that chance?

Describe the televised capture of “Montag”. How is that episode in common with media today?

On setting out on the rail tracks Montag recognises that Clarisse had stepped on the rail tracks before him. Had Clarisse stepped on the rail tracks in reality or metaphorically?

How does the quote at the commencement of the novel set the scene of the whole novel? 

"If they give you ruled paper, write the other way." 

Juan Ramón Jiménez (24 December 1881 – 29 May 1958)

Why has the novel endured as a popular novel? What do you find to be accurate of its predictions of the future? Are there any predictions of the future in the novel that are yet to be realised?

What is so difficult of predicting the future? As the novel is written 70 years ago, what would you predict of the world in 70-years time, in 2092?

In what ways is entertainment and banal television identified in common with its recognition in the dystopian novel Brave New World?

What is the Scripture that is referenced at the book’s closing? What does that Scripture portray? Why is important that Scripture is remembered and shared in Montag’s time? Is it important that the same Scripture is remembered and shared today?

Shalom,

Ozhamada

Sermon launch in yesterday's shower

People of the Anglican Diocese of Perth,

Rise up in a storm of discernment and demand better preaching.

For, one of your clergy had not firmly set a sermon by 3:23pm of the prior day.

“It was precisely 3:23 yesterday afternoon when I realised that I was not the person who should be preaching to you today. 

I was in the shower. 

Which is what I do when I don’t know what to put in my sermon.” 

The Third Sunday after Epiphany by The Reverend Sarah Stapleton | 23 January 2022, accessible here.

Homiletic lecturers emphatically propose preparation of complete sermon drafts days prior to the day of delivery. 

"If you are due to preach Sunday", they say,

 "then have your first full draft done by Tuesday morn before the cock crows". 

It is impressed upon students that they must allow complete sermon drafts to go through refinement that only days of deliberations bring. There is prayer. There is the work of the Spirit.

And, if such lecturers ever consider the role of a shower in sermon preparation, they speak of how the shower moment is one that brings inspiration that finely tunes a single point (rather than as a launching moment).

A stock image, unknwon woman who is probably not a resident of Perth

(As an aside: One finds it inappropriate for a female preacher to allow male congregants, other than the preacher’s spouse, to imagine her unclad in a shower. Such is the trap of the male mind).

Shalom,

Ozhamada

#Perth, #anglican, #perthanglican, #Sermon

Note: Pastor Alistair Beggs illustrates sermon preparation by drawing to how porridge is prepared in Scotland. A good Scot soaks their oats overnight long before cooking them. Pouring a packet of instant oats immediately at the start of the cooking process does not produce anything like the desired product. See:https://youtu.be/sn07712bToU 

Bullies and Saints – An honest look at the good and evil of Christian history

Two sentences from Chapter 4 sunk this book.

Chapter 4 “Log in the Eye of the Church” exposits the Sermon on the Mount. It draws to these summaries of the Christian life:

“The basic posture of a Christian in the world should be one of humble melancholy, accepting their card-carrying membership of the “league of the guilty”".

“It was the Master of the church himself who said I should worry more about my own sins that the sins of others”.

And, such a summary of Christian life is rather depressing.

Dickson has cast Christians to a pre-cross setting. Christ’s message to the world was not complete through the Sermon on the Mount. Christ’s message was sealed with his death and resurrection. The Christian lives in the glorious hope of abundant life of a Saviour – a Saviour that offers all Christians to mortify their sins in his flesh.

I need not adopt a “basic posture…of humble melancholy” as a life sentence. I only need adopt that posture until I have come to receiving Christ; that I fall to my knees that Christ may pick me up.

I need not “worry about my sins” for Christ has given me a daily means of mortifying those sins.

I can imagine that a Christian could take the two sentences to heart such that were paralysed of service to the Lord. They could became so melancholic, and so worried, that they never produced fruit. They would be the one of whom Christ gave one bag of gold only for them to return one bag of gold (Matthew 25:14-30).

 ---

I’ve read the paperback Zondervan Reflective paperback, first edition, 2021. I borrowed from Lane Cove Library and enjoyed their wonderful Library to Your Door service during Sydney’s COVID19 lockdown.

 

Shalom,

Ozhamada

[311 words]  #goodreads #agreatread #books #loveyourlibrary #book #literature #covid19

Note: this links from my Goodreads account (1 star rating). 

Review of a classic movie; Rebecca – available at Lane Cove Street Library

Lane Cove has eleven Street Libraries! How good is that! In the Cove have documented them here.

One of the local street libraries offered up a surprise lockdown find - Rebecca, a movie that won Best Picture at the Academy Awards. It is a 1940 Alfred Hitchcock black and white classic.

Rebecca is the former wife of Maxim de Winter. As the movie opens Maxim completes a rapid holiday courtship of a young lass. Prior to departing from the holiday, they marry and return to Maxim’s large seaside country estate.

In entering the house, the new Mrs. de Winter discovers that she is expected to repeat the same duties of the former wife. She stumbles in adapting to the task of running the household; Mr de Winter at one time accusing her of acting like an upstairs maid. A dark old housekeeper keeps the spectre of Rebecca alive.    

While the title character is never seen in the movie, she influences the whole plot.

Yet to settle in the house, the new Mrs. de Winter - aged in her twenties - dons the spectre of Rebecca with hope that she may be a better fit to the expectations of the house servants. Maxim’s rapid response comforts his new wife:

Mrs. de Winter: I wish I were a woman of 36, dressed in black satin with a string of pearls!

Maxim de Winter: You wouldn't be here with me if you were.

A turning point in the movie comes when the new Mrs. de Winter finally takes control. This is marked by the removal of items that maintain the memory of Rebecca. Hitchcock masterfully marks this moment through a confrontation of the new Mrs. de Winter and the long-serving housekeeper.

Like all good movies there is a dramatic plot twist and a solid ending. I'll not offer any spoilers other than to say that Rebecca's lasting presence is felt. 

Enjoy the movie rugged up with hot chocolate and homemade ginger snaps. It is yours to watch on collection from the street library on the corner of Centennial Ave and Elizabeth Parade. The DVD is unmarked and includes some added features.

Shalom,

Ozhamada

Review of book; Love, Clancy

Richard Glover has published a book for the time. In the upside-down-ness of COVID19 it is tantalising to see the world through the eyes of a dog. And, the dog, a handsome young canine named Clancy, is no ordinary dog. Standing by Richard’s side in a park, not flinching a muscle, Clancy turned to Richard pondering why Richard would want to throw a perfectly good ball away!

Clancy’s letters home to his bush-based parents hold many laugh-out-loud moments. A particularly funny moment was in Richard’s recognition that in commencing, but not finishing, numerous COVID19 lockdown projects, Richard could make more mess in a single room than Clancy ever could.

There are many fond moments. In seeing through Clancy’s eyes, the reader has an opportunity to re-assess what is important. Top of the list is chicken dinner, a scratch behind the ears and a regular 9pm cheese snack. After inhaling dinner in seconds, it is essential to stare at the plate with expectation that additional chicken will fall from the sky.

Regular accounts of Clancy’s diggings (oil yet to be discovered in a Leichhardt backyard) had me wishing that Clancy had joined me for my own COVID19 lockdown project. Unlike Richard’s lockdown projects mine drew to completion! A twenty metre length of ag pipe was laid with much manual shifting of dirt and clay. The slope of the trench had to be dug to ensure that water would run. Clancy would have been a helpful laborer. I would have happily paid in chicken: 

“That is a good straight line Clancy, and the slope at the base is perfect, here have a chicken leg."

“Hey! Clancy, that 60 degree bend exiting the garden bed is worthy as an illustration in a mathematics textbook, here have some chicken breast.”

The book is available at all good book shops. I borrowed a copy from Ryde Library (North Ryde branch) using their excellent reservation service. This post links from a Goodreads review where I scored five out five stars.

Shalom, Ozhamada

 

[334 words] #goodreads #agreatread #books #loveyourlibrary #book #literature #covid19