Category: uncategorized
the river
invites you
not to be
anywhere
but here
yellow pollen blossoms
seeds and pods
spring blooming
all along the riverbank
spring
and blooming
quack says the duck
quack at once mournful
and warning
a calling or a sending
listen…
quack says the duck
quack at once guarding
and guiding
a calling or a sending
listen…
Talitha Fraser
I am sitting in the Woman’s Peace Garden, halfway between Footscray and Kensington, on my way to…
as I was approaching I will confess to musing on the peace symbol feeling a bit passe or gimmicky but today it looks like outstretched arms and, with the rosemary in bloom, feel more feminine. With it’s formal lines and landscaping, the muted greens of the olive trees and rosemary, this space hasn’t felt particularly feminine to me… maybe the idea of what “feminine” should be rather than capturing the spirit of the thing? Although I read that green (olives), and purple (rosemary) and white (roses) are colours of the Suffragette movement and these plants synonymous with peace. If I could create my own garden/park I’d want to create a sense of tranquility, I’d try and plant to block out the road noise/traffic, I’d plant things that smell nice and I like to be useful so the fruit trees and herbs are practical. I like to be connected with the earth so I’d rather dirt paths, with stepping stones or wood as needed, natural resources rather than concrete path… things running together and catching on one another rather than delineated spaces: sit here, walk here, plants there. I would plant so as to attract birds and bees and butterflies and ladybugs so when you look around you, you see life all around. Trees birds would nest in and children would climb in. This can feel like a pedestrian access-way, albeit the pretty way round, rather than a place you come to be. That is generally when healing happens, when you feel a sense of place, a place you can come to and just be. A place where stories can be told and truth heard and where you might imagine fairies and elves whisked away just before you arrived. I am not arriving. I am merely stopping along the way… and I go on, perhaps more peace-full than I imagined I might be.
The Mystery of the Zohar (The Book of Radiance)
The Zohar is the most important work of the Kabbalah. It emerged/appeared in the 13th century in Spain and was associated with Rabbi Moses de-Leon. According to de-Leon, the Zohar was an ancient book (composed by a famous 2nd century Jewish sage) which was found in a cave in Israel and was brought to Spain and into his house. De Leon sold portions of the work and claimed he was copying from the ancient book. Even so, during his life ad after his death some didn’t believe de Leon’s version and believed him to be the real author of the work. Those who thought de-Leon was the author believed that that book was written by means of a mystical technique, namely employing one of the names of God to enter a trance like state whereby the book was channeled to him and written through “automatic writing”. Today, most of all scholars think that the book was written in Spain in the late 13th century and that De Leon is connected to it either as a sole author or as one of the authors but it is still an unsolved mystery.
The Zohar is a very long and magnificent book:
- It tells a story of a great teacher – Rabi Shimon Bar-Yochai – and his 10 students who are travelling around Israel.
- If tells the story of how the Divine Powers – (the Sefirot) – emanated from the infinite God (Ein Sof). Something mysterious happened (a little bit like the big bang) and this event generated the ten divine powers which have different personalities and aspects – some masculine and some feminine in their nature (the infinite God is i a way similar to out soul or to the unconscious and the Sefirot to our body). The last power is feminine and is known as Malkhut (kingdom) or Shekhinah. Our world was born from Shekhina and therefore is always feminine is nature – there are cycles and there are death in it. Since the Shekhinah is not always connected to the other 9 powers – like her, we sometimes feel full and part of something bigger but often times not.
- It is structured as a commentary on the Five books of Moses (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy) – the commentary shows how the bible stories actually hide the stories of the divine powers – their creation and their relationships with one another.
- It was written in Aramaic and in a special coded language. Different words are actually symbols of the divine powers.
- The book was written in a way that can affect the readers as a drug. The images that arouse the senses and feeling expand the reader’s mind and allow them to learn about the true and deep meaning of themselves, of their bodies, of their relationships, their sexuality etc.
- There is a similarity and maybe identification between the Divine and the Human.
- The kabbalists can affect the divine world in different ways and they can bring the divine female and the divine male together – this is usually described in sexual terms. When the male and the female come together in a sexual union the beautiful divine flow comes into the world.
- The Shekhinah is the first and only gate into the divine realm and she is the main hero of the Zohar.
I will confess that when I heard the topic of the week was the Zohar/Kabbalah, I came to the conversation with little beyond “wasn’t Madonna into that at some point”? I have made a point here of including the words that were on Merav’s handout and not my own notes and reflections because to be honest I found some of what I was hearing very strange to my (admittedly) limited understanding despite Merav doing an admirable job of trying to explain it!
What I DID do, by way of response, was immediately pick up a bible and flicked randomly to various sections of the Old Testament, trying to engage it as if I had never heard of Christianity before and recording my first impressions, I found myself in:
Exodus 30:11-16 “When you take the census of the people of Israel, then each shall give a ransom for himself to the Lord when you number them, that there be no plague among them…”
> ransom/kidnapping/buy back language?
> rich people should pay the same amount of tax/tithe as the poor people
> pay up or you’ll get the plague
Judges 19:7-13 ” …saw the people who were there, how they dwelt in security… quiet and unsuspecting, lacking nothing that is in the earth, and possessing wealth… ‘Arise, and let us go up against them… Do not be slow to go, and enter in and possess the land… God has given it to your hands…’ And six hundred men of the tribe of Dan, armed with weapons of war, set forth…”
> invade others countries, it’s a God-given right, especially when you out-number them
> especially where there’s material wealth (ahem, OIL)
> invade them while they’re unarmed and unsuspecting without warning or negotiation
2 Samuel 13:23-29 “But Absolom pressed him until he let Amnon and all the king’s sons go with him. Then Absolom commanded his servants, “Mark when Amnon’s heart is merry with wine, and when I say to you, ‘Strike Amnon’, then kill him. Fear not, have I not commanded you?”
> arranging to kill the guy that rapes your sister is ok
> lie to get near the target, offer them lavish hospitality and then
when they’re blind drunk (unarmed and unsuspecting) take them out
Say what you like about my methodology here, my point is merely that I would certainly struggle to describe my beliefs on the basis of a few readings to anyone who had never heard of it before, or to relate well how I choose to live and act on those beliefs in a way that bears any relation to these passages.
- it is good to visit familiar places as if we are arriving for the first time and know how that might be experienced for people
- the mystery of the Zohar might remain mysterious to me, but what I do not understand still has something to teach me
This song was written reflecting on the Love Makes A Way movement which seeks to see children freed from detention. But even as I wrote it I felt a sort of grief – not just that of refugees heartsick for a safe refuge, a place at the table, but imagining God talking about a kingdom where this is not the way things were supposed to be. It felt like God was saying “There is room here, let Me move…” whatever boundaries or limits or problems you are carrying today… maybe there’s a pattern of behaviour you’d like to see change, of your own or someone else. A situation of your own or some else where you feel bound or stuck or like you don’t have any choices – whether you’re feeling that personally, for loved friends or family… for strangers on a boat… As we sing together – hear God saying “There is room here, let me move….”
Sing LMAW song:
There is room at the table,
there is room at the table
There is room at the table,
let me in, let me in…
In Luke, Jesus looks at his friends and says “I’m so glad we get to share this last Passover meal together ‘cos I’m not going to get to do this again with you until the kingdom of God comes.
The kingdom of God hasn’t come.
But part of why we do this ritual is to remember… to remember that resurrection is ours, God’s kingdom will come if we participate in building it and love makes a way. Let’s eat and drink together… and take that promise in.
“Ye that have faith to look
with fearless eyes beyond the tragedy of a world at strife,
and know out of the death and strife shall rise the dawn of ampler life…”
———
#centennial
#nonviolence
#our God is undocumented
#what does it mean to live an ampler life? is this it?
I went to see Black Diggers at the Arts Centre with a friend last night who had free tickets – profoundly moving – literally telling the story of Aboriginal people who signed up to fight in the World Wars, painting their names high, drawing on postcards and letters home and journals. The performances were authentic because the stories were true. Mindful of how the other entertainments we consume – TV, reality TV, Facebook, Twitter… are shallow. I click “like” on my housemates posts but I don’t see her for meals or ask her about her day. This is the year of the ANZAC centenary… on one hand we might imagine there aren’t many around anymore to share their stories but there are the children who might remember… as, as the play pointed out, war is still being fought – for recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander (ATSI) peoples and on foreign soil. What are you fighting for?
A lot of us might say we’re peaceable people, not fighting for anything, but there’s a difference between conscientious objection and unconscious apathy. You think because you are inactive you are inert but you are not. If your ass is where your hope is an your ass is in front of the TV or the Playstation then your hope is in people and places and stories of people who do not exist… hoping another Stark doesn’t die in Game of Thrones or hoping a child doesn’t spend time in detention…
You might think, “It’s not MY problem” about the treatment of: ATSI peoples; refugees; those on Centrelink – pull one string and you will find the rest of the world attached but TV doesn’t come with any strings right? …except those that tie you to your seat immobile – bind your legs from walking in solidarity, bind your hands from helping, bind your lips from speaking out. You have a choice to make it personal. You are not friends with one refugee? with one Aboriginal person? with anyone who receives Centrelink? …what does this say about you? Do you spend any time with anyone who isn’t just like you? It’s easy to be fair, inclusive, generous hey… when it’s to people just like you. Of course you’re a good person. You’re a good person to people just like you.
Songs and stories and names and voices… we are called to love one another. How can you love who you do not know? I am not unreasonable…
Move.
You heard me. Move from your sofa at least… maybe even from your street… or your neighbourhood. We are told the poor will always be with us and thank God for that because there is much we need to learn from them.
…Fifty years on the shrapnel works its way to the surface. The pain will come out eventually – that needs to happen before wounds can fully heal.
How can we heal pain faster?
How can we reduce how much pain is felt?
How can we eliminate pain being afflicted in the first place?
But you aren’t in any pain are you… there in front of your TV… we should probably cut the funding to the public health care system. No one I know needs it. What a waste of my tax paying dollars.
I took myself to NGV International this week for quiet time to prep for communion – this is a photo from their 16th and 17th Century Art section. All the images in the gallery to the left of the frame were images of the crucifixion of Jesus and all those to my right the birth… we’ve just had Easter (crucifixion) and now we’ve got the months before Christmas (birth). It’s easy to think of Jesus at these times – the time he was born and the time he died (then rose) – those were miraculous events and out of my reach. I know there are people out there who just connect with church at the high holidays but this is what they miss… I can’t ‘be like Jesus’ in the sense of how he was born or died, this can make Jesus seem far away, but the life in between these events… telling stories, listening to others, going for walks, praying, holding kids, going fishing – these things are in our reach… Life we can live between these special sacred high holidays in ‘ordinary time’, this is when it’s easier to be near and be like Jesus.
Jesus is sitting eating the Passover meal with his friends – people who worked for the Roman Empire and rebels who worked to overthrow it… JB Were and the Occupy Movement, the rich with inherited investments and property portfolios and those of inter-generational poverty on Centrelink, Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander peoples with colonisers… took the food they were eating in front of them and made it sacred. He took ‘ordinary time’ and made it sacred, imbuing it with ritual and meaning.
…something to think about next time you go fishing.
Does Love Provoke? Or: How to be wrong by being right – Transfiguration Community (Bible Study)
Making evil visible
- Making injustice visible. Jesus provoked many. Biblical: Healing on the Sabbath, Mark 3:1-6; Cleansing of the temple, John 2:13-end.
- Speaking peace, peace, where there is no peace. Jeremiah 6:14. Speaking truth to power – the Quakers, CT Resolve, Charlie Hebdo: the western right of free speech (defend our democratic values). The right to offend. The exhortation of our Prime Minister not to hold back out of fear of reprisal. What is the problem here?
- The choices of Jesus. He rejected publicity/celebrity status. temptation in the desert 4:1-11, the Servant in Isaiah 42:1-4 he will not lift up his voice in the streets.
Righteousness as a relational term: not to get it right but to be in right relationship in one’s community; to give oneself for the life of the community; to gain especially the estranged so they can come home.
- Mark 1:35-38, Luke 7:1-9, Luke 19:1-10, on the night of the arrest – no calling on legions of angels; healing the ear of the high priest’s servant, silence before Herod, engagement with Pilate.
If you have not love…
Freedom and rights.
Being wrong by being right
Being strong – and offending against love!
If we provoke, we are responsible for those whom we provoke.
When love goes, truth also goes. When brothers and sisters die in Nigeria because of my right to offend, then I am no longer right. Then I have become as cruel as the enemies I denounce.
If I get myself arrested but have no love… Love especially for the enemy – that is distinctive for followers of Jesus. ‘If you love only those who love you, who agree with you…’
If I give up my life nut have no love – how am I different from suicide bombers who give up their life for hate.
Suffering can be used in the service of the sarx, as a manipulative tool, to provoke guilt in others, to further one’s own glory. That’s why the early church unanimously rejected self-taught martyrdom as bogus. See also the rabbis’ teaching: if anyone knows about your charity etc. it does not count!
Biblical:
- John 6: The ma born blind. Healing on a Sabbath. The man is excommunicated. Jesus looks for him and finds him and gives him something that will sustain him now forever.
The Dangers of Being Right
- older son in the parable of Jesus – Luke 15:11-32
- gaining the approval of the whole world Mark 8:36 – or those who ‘like me on facebook’ – yet losing one’s true self. Abuse of those who do not live up to my ideals.
- Matthew 6 They have their reward, your father sees in secret
For freedom Christ has set you free
- Galatians 5:13 – You have been called to freedom…
- Romans 14 whole chapter and 15:1-6, your being right forces your weaker fellow believers to go against their conscience and makes them stumble!
- 1 Corinthians 13 – even if you sacrifice your own life in the cause of right – without love it is nothing.
The Alternative way of Jesus: Solidarity and Identification
Solidarity is not only with the poor and oppressed but also with the oppressors. This is the difference between Jesus and Pharisaism (to separate oneself). We are part of the problem. Jesus is baptised by John. Why? Go and learn what this means: I want mercy not sacrifice.
CT Resolve: Judge no one.
CT liturgy: Redeeming power released into the world by suffering endured on behalf on the evildoer.
itellyouarise 
