personal statement on learning

Reflection on a kingdom of heaven trip

Was the course just 5 days?  And yet, it felt like travelling right around the world and past a few moons, for a much longer and refreshing  time or retreat-in-action.

One sense, two senses + mystery = 3D + x 

It is important for the guide to be equipped helping others to connect with multi-platform media to optimise the encounter of meeting with God, self and community. Inductively, deductively and within the dialogue of one voice or many.

 The image of John, Rev 10, being asked to eat the scroll (taste the Word), applies as the sweetness of honey and bitterness in the stomach may symbolise the hard work needed of assimilating the text, before presenting it so that all may have joy.

And what of fear that our ‘power’ may go, as people may want to choose their own experience.

Job-security versus mission? Which is it?

And the missional answer is yea!!!! Whatever it takes, fusion-food is good.  Talking more languages, using pause, contrast, juxtaposing tensions, inviting the tactile to speak into the text; or the image to be carried by sound.  Or one may incorporate the DJ as choreographer or cook to create spontaneous random actions such as pushing the individuals’ private experience to connect with social justice

Style? Authoritative or invitation to discovery? Permission-giving or prescribed - either side of the pulpit?  Receptive audience versus a resigned one?

An artist may display an artwork and tell the audience that they will only get it if attending at prescribed time with same attitude.  Another choice would be an invitation to come and see and hear and experience, on a flexible platform.   And this is where the web may invite or intimidate:

  Smell - what is the space between the sweetpea and the drain?  The smell of my first classroom, your first toy, my place in the Bible – or yours?  And who can count smells like goats and sheep?

It is interesting to consider that one’s neuro-physiology may enhance one’s neuro-theology   Is the smell of comfort as good as the taste of same?

Can spices be infused in little bags and put in the Bible so that Mark’s smell of cloves can be differentiated from the nutmeg of John’s gospel?

Is God entering the world, incarnating the smell of the world, washing it away or staying in it?  

Will the web sanitise the world?   Does the web offer real interaction or does it offer the no-smells version. And is this a good space, or a new box?

Play "imagine-if" to create a set of chairs, one for each audient, to explore questions never considered or posed before.

Subvert: play  ‘warm-cold’ with teenagers – have them turn their back on you when they do not agree with a statement, and turn to you or hop closer when they agree (needs to be playful and sound like a spur of moment thing)

And then the art of bunching and scrunching: DJ. And the DJ can grab aims and purpose and content and context  and add cultural memories to the mix, and then reapply that another place to grab a new audience or to connect one audience to another – even if the message or the cause is different……every time…..!....?

Exciting, powerful, difficult to interpret in complex settings, or when not enough socio-cultural context homework done.  DJ could be difficult to follow – special note: do homework!

A quick chat about silence

 with ST helped me clarify why I sometimes feel so at odds with silence as I articulated

discomfort and suspicion about ‘code’ of other cultures which  may not be as transparent as ‘I’ or ‘they’ may interpret it to be

 Reflection  John 8

Today Jesus was still.  He did not say.  He was still.  What is it with stillness?  Is it a space around people that pulls together or pushes away?

Why was he still?  Was he too busy writing curley- whurlies in the sand – printing images of knuckles HARD, then brushing it away to push the palm of his hand gently on the earth, like sculpting around a wet cheek, his hand stays.

Jesus was busy because it was Tuesday, no time for miracles or pulling children on his lap, or blessing cheese-makers or healing old widows and hobblers, and the sea was calm and no extra bread to be had today – it is Tuesday and the wine seems enough, and the pigs are happy, or so they thought and Legion ran up many hills at once

And the temple is business as usual with tables upright, and hands are wiped in glee and Judas counted the money, and it was all.  But there are no extra blessings or stories or roofs being lifted off today – because it is still early, and Jesus is still.

Or did he not have space for words or was he too far away – from noise.  Is stillness holy or hostile, is it fragile or comfortable or threatening or aloof or face saving or gracious or peace or indifference or what is it for you?

Jesus spoke in small letters, and looked away – so that you could walk or stay – and not blame the mirror but find your own direction, so that you could walk or stay – and he was in the shadow with you – giving you a peace that you could not put down.  Jesus is still.  Here.

Did the tool of stillness, and simple body movement, act as juxtapose, a deliberate shift of  attention away from the woman, a tool to create drama, suspense, let the tension diffuse?

Reflection on my learning:  We as ministers may see ourselves as one of many guides on the experiential path of seeking God.  I ‘d like to see my task shaped  more to be the sharing the experience of many different levels of Kingdom values, and affirming people this way.  This course helped me to consider working on sermons while on bushwalks or when making jam – to lean into the connectedness of what I am busy with, or the opposite.. and to use colour, shape, hear or taste to create the spiral of movement, from Word to community, via image, open dialogue and contrasting environments, and see the Spirit weaving to and fro. This discovery can happen within and without the walls of the church, via the web, via the take-away, in smell, craft or memory. to share the discovery, as a life-long journey  in the stillness, or the momentum of spirituality-on-the-go.

Thank you all, for sharing this rich experience, and for the many lessons shared!

 PS: I challenged myself  to deliver my reflection in shapes, voice balloons, images and COLOUR on powerpoints, but the blog says no:  it is black and white........and never the twain shall meet?

 

I am wondering

Hi I am from South Africa, and within Australia, and sometimes I go walkabout between countries, in a book or a movie, or a mountain or with the stamps in my passports, or I put my photographs upside down or I find myself in a new place which causes me to wonder where am I and what will I learn, going from the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa which was sometimes a hollow building with space for many, but found the laughter within the stroke-patient unit, where everyone who was black was laughing and everyone who was white was wondering why and frowning, and then I came to Australia, but first the church in Holland was very strict and they said the words in funny ways which tickled, and I always wanted to go back to that laughing and the organ on Saturday afternoons. and the community church of Belgium - what a togetherness......And then Maughan church with the big heart, and then Hall Uniting Church near Canberra, with the lovely youth who were so welcoming,   and then the church in Melbourne without a minister - a lonely place, and then Maughan again - with a deeper heart and many coloured faces - and one day i made a sculpture of clay of Mary praying and put red blossoms all around it and the next minute I was named  'a minister' but what do I minister?  I want to learn about church - what is the different languages we can use, and how do we interpret the messages, full of smoke sometimes, to us?