Coffee Incarnation

I love writing in coffee shops. I usually look for a spot way at the back, some nook or cranny where it is just me and the occasional chit-chat with an over eager waiter. Today I got the table on the “outside”, right in the walkway, almost on the edge of the shop next-door. Outside is obviously the wrong term, because there is still a roof over my head, I am after all still indoors. But that is just typical shopping mall jargon, classic suburbia. The idea is to make you feel as if you are sitting somewhere in (pseudo)nature, when you are actually in the comfort of a controlled environment.

Back to where I am sitting: The so-called “outside”, the edge. The place I prefer to avoid. Here where “they” are right in my face, or rather “me” right in their way.

What is the drawback of sitting here? Why do I avoid it most of the time?

I don’t like the buzz of people when I need inner inspiration.

It is too noisy.

I might see someone I know, eye contact will lead to conversation, and things might get awkward. I hate small talk.

I prefer to check people out from a distance, it makes me feel safe. I feel uncomfortable when I feel like I am in the middle of them. Someone might be checking me out. Where is the fun in that?

I feel exposed.

I am confronted with the fact that I am one of them, whoever they might be.

Sometimes I need to be alone.

On the arrival of my second cuppa chino I need to reflect on the magic of the table on the outside.

I see things from a different angle.

I am forced to look at people, most of them strangely familiar.

I see the guy behind the till in the shop next door. He looks unhappy.

The waiters are more chit-chatty with me, because other customers can see us. I get to learn a lot of new names.

I am part of the action (bear in mind that “action” is relative to the context of a suburbia shopping mall)

My inner inspiration is complemented (or challenged?) by a multitude of external impetuses.

From here I am writing with a different reader in mind.

After a while I become more aware, more in tuned with the world I live in, faces, names, thoughts, ideas, movements, music, lyrics, marketing promises, noises and smells become a way of opening myself to new ways thinking.

Maybe this is what the incarnation in the Christian faith tradition is all about. Putting your “carne” your body in a different place, moving from the known to the unknown in the hope of experiencing Metanoia, the opening of the mind to a bigger reality.

Charter for Compassion

The Charter:

The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves. Compassion impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures, to dethrone ourselves from the centre of our world and put another there, and to honour the inviolable sanctity of every single human being, treating everybody, without exception, with absolute justice, equity and respect.

It is also necessary in both public and private life to refrain consistently and empathically from inflicting pain. To act or speak violently out of spite, chauvinism, or self-interest, to impoverish, exploit or deny basic rights to anybody, and to incite hatred by denigrating others—even our enemies—is a denial of our common humanity. We acknowledge that we have failed to live compassionately and that some have even increased the sum of human misery in the name of religion.

We therefore call upon all men and women ~ to restore compassion to the centre of morality and religion ~ to return to the ancient principle that any interpretation of scripture that breeds violence, hatred or disdain is illegitimate ~ to ensure that youth are given accurate and respectful information about other traditions, religions and cultures ~ to encourage a positive appreciation of cultural and religious diversity ~ to cultivate an informed empathy with the suffering of all human beings—even those regarded as enemies.

We urgently need to make compassion a clear, luminous and dynamic force in our polarized world. Rooted in a principled determination to transcend selfishness, compassion can break down political, dogmatic, ideological and religious boundaries. Born of our deep interdependence, compassion is essential to human relationships and to a fulfilled humanity. It is the path to enlightenment, and indispensible to the creation of a just economy and a peaceful global community.

click here to go the website

Eagleton on Dawkins

Terry Eagleton flinging punches at Richard Dawkins. I wonder who will turn the other cheek?

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n20/terry-eagleton/lunging-flailing-mispunching

The Missional Ponderings of a Leftbehinder

While the perfect Christians have been raptured to go and live in their heavenly mansions of shimmering gold, we, “the left behind followers of Jesus” will have to embrace life here on earth.

For those of us who feel a little left behind, this is my Top Ten Tribulation Survival Guide:

1. Earth is our home. Contrary to popular Christian belief, this is all we’ve got (for now). We were made out of the Earth, this is where we belong. God loves Earth. As followers of Jesus, we need to love it too.

2. God is first love, then grace, then just.

3. The raptured Christians are wrong when they say that the time of grace has come to an end. Grace never ends.

4. Humour goes a long way. It is OK to laugh, especially in (at) church, because the stuff some Christians say about God is really funny.

5. No, the ANC were not responsible for the logistics of the rapture. There is a better explanation for why it did not happen: It is just bad theology, simple as that.

6. There is more than one way to read and understand The Bible…

7. …but to read it in a fundamentalist way is just plain dangerous.

8. Christians need to learn how to believe with more that just emotions. It is OK to use your brain when it comes to God.

9. We are called to add flavour to this life, not to sit and wait for God to take us out of life.

10. Love wins.